Mermaid Melody season 3: The hidden series part 1
by DarkestIllusions45
Summary: The hidden 3rd Series of Mermaid Melody. Luchia and Kaito are getting married and are finally having to face going back to the sea. What will they do about Hanon and Rina's boyfriends? Will a new enemy appear from the darkness? Will everything go as smoothly as planned? Decent number of Oc's, male fishies and lots of excitement and mysteries. Please Read and Review.
1. Chapter 1: An unexpected Visit

**Mermaid Melody, the hidden series part 1**

**A Mermaid Melody Fanfic Re-write by: Over-The-Black-Nexus**

**Old version 'The Wedding' by: MermaidPrincessLilian**

**I don't own the original 7 chapters of this fanfic but I do own the other god knows how many chapters that are to come. I'm adding in lots of other ideas from fanfics that I never really want to put out there. This is the first one I'm really writing, so I hope I do a good job. Criticism is welcome, but please, NO FLAMING ME! I will not stand for flaming and I find it mean when others do it to other people here on FF too. I hope MermaidPrincessLilian will like my re-write. She stopped writing it a year ago but I liked the line she was working along. This is going to be on-off uploaded along another fanfic which I'm making, not saying what it is yet, though it is another mermaid fanfic, kind of addicted to writing them.**

**Nexus: So, please enjoy this we-written and updated fanfic.**

**Luchia: So… you're doing an Authoresses corner?**

**Kaito: Why wouldn't she, it keeps her entertained, plus when new characters come into a story, they come here to hang out. We also annoy Nexus about her fanfic ideas and scripts for chapters, messing about.**

**Nexus: As thanks to a pre-done roulette spin, Nagisa will be doing disclaimers for the first 7 chapters, then we'll see who does it for the next 7. Oh Nagisa…**

**Nagisa: *sigh* Nexus doesn't own Mermaid Melody or the original 7 chapters of 'The Wedding, it's new name being 'Mermaid Melody, the hidden series part 1.'**

**Hanon: Aww, there's my cute little m-**

**-is hit by Mermaid Melody manga book.**

**Nexus: Every time one of you tries to reveal a story line, I will throw a manga book at you, it will distract you.**

**Hanon: Oh please, like's that's gonna, Ooooh, Kaito looks hot in this.**

**-Luchia boiling. Luchia: Hanon! Stop staring!**

**Nexus: I'm just gonna leave them to fight it out whilst I give you chapter 1. Please R&R at the end, even if you don't have an account now, be a guest and REVIEW ME! I work faster with more reviews…**

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Chapter 1: An unexpected visit from home

Well, it's the end of pure. The end of a season of torture with Mikeru and Mikaru. Nikora made a suggestion that Kaito should move into the Pearl Piari with the Princesses. We all know the fight with Mikeru is over, but with new dangers always on the horizon, Kaito couldn't afford to be too far away from them. Naturally, he agreed as it would mean getting to live with Luchia. He eventually sold off his apartment and moved in perfectly fine.

Life had been peaceful over the next few months. No sea demons had appeared to attack them, no more girls trying to steal Kaito, they backed off more than usual. Life seemed pretty good now.

Only, life was like this, until that one night I suppose.

On that one night, a mysterious ring…

*Ding Dong

"I'll get it!" A voice shouted running down the stair case. It was Luchia. She had changed a little in a few months, she'd grown here hair out a little longer so it was down to just above mid-back now yet she still kept her two ribbons in her hair. She was wearing different magenta pyjamas now as well. She ditched her long sleeved top for a vest top instead and kept the bottoms. She was also wearing fluffy pink bunny slippers with chibi bunny faces on them and ears popping out the top.

She rushed down the stair case to open the door to see someone she hadn't seen before. Well the person seemed familiar to her but Luchia couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"Yo, Luchia, long time no see," the strange said.

Luchia looked the person up and down, the figure frowning.

"Luchia, you don't recognise me? Take another good look at me."

Luchia took another look. The figure was a female with sea blue/ green coloured eyes, soft hair the same colour that came down as a soft wavy bob with jaggered straight fringing (look at Mint from Rio Rainbow Gate, then you'll see what I mean). She wore a pretty fluffy light pastel orange coat with a white fur collar and dark purple leggings, more close to black. On her feet were white boots, almost like Luchia's red pair but there were fewer laces on them, making them wider and they also had a black X on the back as well. Just so we all know, she's Meru's sister.

Luchia could only think of one person. She had to be.

"There's no way it's you… Yukairi?" Luchia asked.

A wide smile hit Yukairi's face. Just to be clear. Yukairi belongs to me, she's a mermaid from Luchia's kingdom who hasn't been seen since she helped Luchia get ready for her 'coming of age' Ceremony.

"Princess Luchia-sama, you remember me!" she cried whilst leaping into a huge hug with Luchia, which she gratefully returned.

"I've haven't seen you in ages Yukairi, I hope everyone at home's been okay, yes?"

"Yep they've been fine, in fact-" Yukairi began to say until she was cut short by a loud voice.

"YUKAIRI!" a loud voice shouted from the top of the staircase. It was Luchia's 'sister' Nikora. She had a similar set of pyjamas on as Luchia but her bottoms were like a pair of short shorts. Also, all of her clothes, even the slippers being the same, were a slightly lighter shade of purple than her hair, now tied in a spiked bun as usual.

"Ni-Nikora-sama!" the surprised Yukairi now standing straight before her.

Nikora sighed and smiled at the two. "Honestly Yukairi, took you a while to get here," Nikora began coming downstairs to talk to the two.

"Huh, you mean you knew she was coming all along Nikora?" Luchia asked, slightly annoyed at Nikora.

"Yup, I'll explain more in the kitchen, matters to do with your Kingdom nonetheless."

"Nikora!" Luchia shouted, trying to grab her attention to ask her another question. Sadly, Nikora seemed to be ignoring her. She was about to shout again, until she heard a loud yawn from the top of the staircase.

"*yawn*, what's all the shouting about Luchia, trying to get to sleep seems impos-"

Kaito stopped his sentence when he say Yukairi in the house. Someone he had never seen before.

"Luchia, who's this?"

"Oh yeah, Kaito, this is Yukairi, she's safe to tell secrets too, she's a mermaid from my kingdom and Yukairi, this is Kaito?"

"Kaito-kun? Well then, Kaito, who are you exactly?" Yukairi asked. She felt like she had seen him before somewhere.

"Well, I'm Domouto Kaito, last Panthalassa Prince of the Seas and Luchia's boyfriend. What about yourself?"

"Like Luchia said, I'm a mermaid from her kingdom. I work as one of the many servants in the palace but I was one of the more closer to Luchia. We're pretty close friends back ho-"

Yukairi was cut short once more. People in this place need to stop being cut short, they're all tired though so cutting short happens a lot.

"Yukairi, Luchia! Get your butts in this kitchen now. We have really important matters to discus." Nikora shouted as loud as she could.

"Coming!" the both replied running into the Kitchen.

"Kaito," Nikora also said. She'd hear Kaito's voice in the hallway and thought his timing was almost too perfect. "Since you're here, we can discus even more important matters as well, SO GET YOU'RE ASS IN HERE!"

Kaito just stood there, his ears getting over the ringing sound her shouting voice left. "I'm coming," he replied sounding really tired.

Once Nikora had gotten everyone sat down in the kitchen, she gave everyone a drink of tea before beginning to discus the important stuff.

"Well, I was going to start with asking about the conditions of Luchia's kingdom back home but now Kaito's here… hey Yukairi, how well are preparations going?

"Preparations, you told me to hold them off until they both agreed to the, thing." Yukairi simply replied.

"Wait, what thing me and Kaito need to agree to?" the curious Luchia asked.

"Well, since you're a princess and Kaito is a prince of the sea, you're both old in the mermaid world for marriage. And as part of your requirement as a Mermaid Princess Luchia, you're just going to have to marry Kaito," Nikora said smiling as much as she could.

"Marriage!?"

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**Nexus: Sorry if chapter 1 seemed kind of short. This is my first ever fanfic like I said.**

**Luchia: I wouldn't worry too much. You've left it at a point that you feel is right until the next chapter starts. **

**Kaito: We will warn you now, most chapters are not overly long but in the future, some chapters will be a lot longer. This chapter was kind of just the basics. More information will be given in the next chapter about stuff.**

**Nexus: Thank you Kaito.**

**Everyone including Rina and Masahiro now too: See you all in the next chapter.**

**Nexus: Give it a few days, maybe next Tuesday!**


	2. Chapter 2: Marriage and Mayhem

**Nexus: Well, turns out I wasn't as busy as I thought at the weekend so I've managed to upload it today instead.**

**Everyone: Whoooooooooo!**

**Luchia: Can we just get on and find out why me and Kaito are getting married?**

**Nexus: We can, but Nagisa needs to do disclaimers and there is the new claimer spin too for 7 chapters at a time but 6 to begin with. And the winner is… Rina!**

**Rina: T_T crap**

**Nagisa: Nexus doesn't own Mermaid Melody or the original 7 chapters of 'The Wedding, it's new name being 'Mermaid Melody, the hidden series part 1.'**

**Rina: Nexus does own Yukairi though and she also owns Ha-**

**-Rina gets book thrown at her.**

**Rina: HEY, I was just doing my job, why the heck did I get a book thrown at me!?**

**Nexus: *sternly* because you tried to reveal the name of a character who hasn't been revealed yet even if I do own them.**

**Rina: Right, I'll remember that in the futu- Ooooh, Death Note Los Angeles BB Murder Case, NICE!**

**Nexus: See, it keeps them distracted, give it a few chapters and they'll all be distracted. Until then, plz enjoy chapter 2**

**Masahiro: Also, this chapter is dedicated to magic135 for being Nexus's first ever reviewer. She also thanks Mermaid-Luchia for reviewing too and also for inspiring her to write fanfics as they were the first she ever read.**

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Chapter 2: Marriage and Mayhem

"Marriage!?" Luchia and Kaito shouted in shock

"Nikora, can you explain why we have to be married at this age?" Kaito asked curiously.

She sighed and took a deep breath, getting ready to explain it all. "Luchia has a list of requirements as the North Pacific Oceans Mermaid Princess. One of those requirements is to get married to royalty. In other words, someone from another clan like the Panthalassa Clan. There are many clans in the ocean besides yours Kaito. For example, the Octavius Clan and Verenasus Clan. There are 20 in total throughout the Ocean but they're not important. Since you're of royalty of the sea Kaito and you're very close to Luchia, you've been going out for just over 5 odd years now. I know it seems young to marry in Japan considering you're both 17 now but in the mermaid world, once a princess has her coming of age ceremony at the age of 13, she can become married 2 years later at the age of just 15."

She stopped for a minute before starting again.

"There's been a lot of controversy back at the palace about when Luchia will be coming back to rule with a husband by her side. It's time. Me, you two, Hanon and Rina have to go back now. We've spent too long here in the human world. We should have left 2 years ago technically. It seems unfair to spring this on the four of you but Hanon and Rina have it worse than you. We're giving you all a week to get ready to leave and for Hanon and Rina to say goodbye to Nagisa and Masahiro."

"Luchia, are you sure you're okay with getting married?" Yukairi asked because Luchia had a sad look on her face.

"No, I have no problem with it," she turned to Kaito, "but are you okay with it?"

"I admit I'll miss the human world a lot but I have no problem with it. I love you Luchia, I had every intent in my mind to ask you about marriage next year in all fairness so I'm fine with it."

"Well, that was easier than we expected it to be, we thought you'd go off on one Luchia, you've grown a lot," Yukairi said smiling.

"Just one last question Nikora, can we return to the surface occasionally?"

"Sort of. We have to stay in the sea for one year after your marriage and then we can properly return to the surface whenever we please."

It wasn't as bad as the two had first perceived it to be. Getting married was the biggest shock but the rest of the side rules were fine by them. Rina and Hanon had been told a few days ago that they would be leaving soon and would have to say goodbye to Nagisa and Masahiro.

Luchia and Kaito headed off upstairs, back to bed, back to sweet sleep once more.

Yukairi turned looking rather annoyed at Nikora.

"Oy Nikora, I didn't even need to come here to help you did I? You did the all the talking anyway, I barely got a word in about the kingdom and you knew everything anyway."

"Hehe, sorry about that, I just thought you might also enjoy seeing the Human world again. It's been a while since you first came ashore with me as a kid hasn't it," Nikora replied trying to sound happy over all the tiredness that was taking over all her actions.

Yukairi smiled as if to say 'I see your point' and followed Nikora to a room that she had prepared from Yukairi's visit to the surface world. She would leave early tomorrow morning before everyone else woke up for there was a lot to prepare back at the castle.

Luchia decided she would go and take a bath to try and get rid of the stress. She grabbed her towel and headed straight for the bathroom. She slid into the bath letting her tail slink over the edge and began to sing softly.

Little was she aware that Kaito was planning to take a bath as well. Since Kaito could hear Luchia singing, he decided it was safe to go in.

Luchia had just about finished up in the bathroom when she suddenly heard the door being opened. She thought it was Hippo like usual so she did the usual. Screamed and used her tail to splash the intruder with a wave of water. Only this time, she heard no screaming like Hippo usually would. She opened her eyes slowly only to see a soaking wet Kaito.

* * *

Nikora had shown Yukairi to her room when they heard the screaming. The two had worked out it was Luchia and Kaito as they were the only other two awake in the house.

* * *

Kaito just stood there, dripping wet with a shocked Luchia staring at him, hands to her mouth and eyes wide. Kaito simply said "Luchia, you didn't have to go and splash me with water. It's not like you're naked or anything when you take a bath, you're just in your mermaid form, there shouldn't be any need to splash anyone, and we can't see anything."

"KAITO! Is that you?" Luchia asked very shocked.

"Bakka, of course it's me! And now that I'm dripping wet, I need to take a bath anyway, you mind getting out so I can go in."

"Why don't you just join me in the bath, it's big enough for both of us, I'll just sit on one side and you on the other?" Luchia suggested.

"Well, if we are getting married soon, we'll be getting used to stuff like this.

Kaito took off his wet clothes which didn't make Luchia blush for once. She'd seen him naked too many times now to be shocked anymore. Plus with the soon marriage, she'd be getting more use to it. And it isn't as if Kaito hasn't Luchia a few time naked as well. Luchia shifted herself to the other side of the bath so that Kaito could sit inside the bath and Luchia repositioned herself on top of Kaito.

"So, you nervous about going back home to your Palace Luchia?" Kaito asked.

"Not really, I miss it actually. I'm more concerned you'll miss the human world more. You've grown up your entire life here and now you're giving it all away for a year just for me." Luchia replied.

"I'd give up anything for you, Luchia," Kaito said softly, using his hands to cup Luchia's cheeks and turning her head towards him, bringing her into a slow and passionate kiss. They broke apart once both deprived of oxygen.

They then sat in silence for another half an hour just letting the water relax them.

"Well, I'm getting out then, you don't mind waiting whilst I dry off do you?" Luchia asked

"No it's fine."

Luchia hopped out the bath tub sitting over the edge to dry off her tail and turn them back into her Pyjamas. She looked at Kaito as if to signal that he could come out.

"Um Luchia, you soaked all of my clothing so you'll have to get me some whilst I dry off."

"That's right, I'll go get some right now!" Luchia remembered running out of the bathroom to grab some clothing. She chucked it into the bathroom and headed off to bed for the night, leaving Kaito to change and go back to sleep.

Just when Luchia was getting back to her room, she had to change her pyjama bottoms because they had gotten a little bit wet in the bathroom. Just as she was changing, the door suddenly opened and Luchia was still taking no chances in case it was Hippo.

It was, so she just grabbed a load of stuff of her shelf and began throwing it a Hippo.

"LUCHIA, PLEASE STOP!" Hippo screamed between dodging all the timed being thrown/ chucked at him.

Luchia quickly put on her new pyjama bottoms and stared cross armed at Hippo. "Well, what is it?" She sound very pissed off.

"Well, Nikora just got news from the kingdom. We'll be going back tomorrow now instead." He said sounding kinda sad.

"Eh, why tomorrow no instead. Oh well, thank you anyway Hippo."

"Yes, well, goodnight Luchia."

As soon as Hippo left, Kaito came in wondering what all the shouting had been about.

"What was that all about Luchia?" Kaito asked.

"*sigh*, Hippo just came to tell me that we're now leaving tomorrow instead of the originally planned one week. Do you mind just heading along to tell Hanon and Rina as well?"

"No, I'll go tell them, goodnight love."

Kaito had gone off and told Rina and Hanon about it, both of them seeming rather upset. Both knew that they had to tell Nagisa and Masahiro that they were leaving right after school tomorrow and both were quite upset. They would be able to tell them at least that they would be coming back after a year so that they wouldn't have to break up with them fully.

-**Time change, Midnight-**

Luchia was sound asleep until she heard a knocking at the her bedroom door. She had no choice but to get up and open the door. She got to it with her eyes half open and opened the door revealing a wide awake looking Kaito.

"Kaito, what are you doing here? It's just past midnight and you're not asleep?" she asked him.

"Luchia, I can't get to sleep so I was wondering, if I could spend the night asleep with you?"

"WHAT! Kaito, we're not married just yet," she replied.

"I know that but can I just please sleep with you for this one night?"

"Kaito, Hippo's room was closer from yours than mine, you couldn't just go sleep with him," she said teasing him.

"Oh come on! Please just let me sleep in your room." Kaito was now literally at the point of a dog, down on his knees begging at Luchia's feet.

"Fine, come on it," Luchia said waiting for him to stand up and get off her feet.

"Thank you so much Luchia," Kaito said giving her a big hug and a quick kiss goodnight.

Luchia settled down in her bed, facing the wall. Kaito slept on the other side, wrapping his hands around Luchia's waist. Both quickly fell into deep sleep and stayed that way for the rest of the night.

**Nexus: Aww, that a sweet place for me to leave it. The next chapter will be about school and Hanon and Rina having to say goodbye to their boyfriends. Also, sorry for it being kind of short again, when it's get to chapter 4, they'll become a little bit more longer than this everyone.**

**Rina and Hanon stop reading books: But we don't want to say goodbye! *both boyfriends walk over to stop them from crying. **

**Nagisa: So does that mean you'll be kicking us out the corner?**

**Nexus: Maybe**

**Masahiro goes to look at script list: Aha! This say's were-**

**-is hit with a heavier book. Nexus: WILL ALL OF YOU STOP TRYING TO REVEAL THE STORY LINE! It's a good thing I brought some new books recently or else this would be an issue. I could start chucking DVD's at you instead.**

**Masahiro contently reads book and shuts up.**

**Nexus: I have written chapter 3 but I'm not uploading it till next Tuesday so you'll just have to wait. If I get a few more reviews by Monday evening, I might just upload it then, in short, PLZ R&R if you want more!**


	3. Chapter 3: A secret surprise

**Nexus: I'm baaack. And on time just like I said I would be. I just can't help but write lots recently. Even though I'm at college I start writing at around 1 in the morning. Not bad eh?**

**Everyone in corner: …**

**Nexus: They kept trying to reveal the story line too much and turns out they really like my death note books so that's keeps them all occupied. Even so, NAGISA, RINA!**

**Nagisa: Nexus doesn't own Mermaid Melody or the original 7 chapters of 'The Wedding' by MermaidPrincessLilian.**

**Rina: Nexus does own Yukairi and future OC's not to be named.**

**Nexus: *puts back held book* Not bad, you actually didn't reveal anything. I also said to someone that I would put up all couples that are in this story so far, for part 1 at least.**

**LuchiaXKaito**

**HanonXNagisa**

**RinaXMasahiro**

**GaitoXSara**

**HippoXYuri**

**That's all for the first story at least. There will be at least one new couple per story. And with that, let chapter 3 begin!**

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**Chapter 3: A secret surprise for more than 1**

The next day when Luchia woke up, she forgot that she had fallen asleep in the arms of Kaito. She stretched her arms and got up quickly whilst rocking Kaito shouting at him to wake up.

"Luchia, what time is it?"

"School."

"Oh you mean…"

"School."

"Okay, but before I get up, I just need a morning kiss," Kaito said as he rolled over and pinned Luchia down to the bed. He gave her a fierce, feisty, passionate kiss which Luchia gratefully returned. He then started to plant butterfly kisses all over Luchia's neck enjoying the sounds of the small moans escaping her lips. He began to start unbuttoning her clothes but this was when reality hit her back and she clasped his hands tightly.

"Not now Kaito, go and get ready for school!" She shouted at him.

"Fine," Kaito replied still sounding kinda groggy considering that kissing should have woken him up a bit more. He headed on back to his room to get ready for his last say at school, Luchia doing the same. Nikora had sent a letter to the school to tell them that they were all leaving 1 week earlier than planned.

-**Time change, 2 minutes before school bell rings-**

"Luchia, this all your fault! If you would have dressed faster then we wouldn't be in this situation." Hanon shouted at Luchia in between breaths.

"I'm sorry okay?" she breathed back.

"Even so, we've gotta pick up the pace or we'll never make it in time!" Rina said plainly.

Luckily, all four of them made it just in time to get into class, the bell just literally ringing when all four of them ran into class. They all took their seats just as the teacher entered the classroom for roll call/ register.

"Well, since you're all here class, I have an important announcement to make today. Four students will be leaving our class today and won't be coming back here again." The teacher said, sparking off little conversations around the entire class.

"Who do you think they are?" one girl could be heard saying.

"Maybe it's Yamuro-kun and his friends?" another girl could be heard saying.

"Alright class, settle down and I'll tell you who it is. Knowing you lot, when I say it, you'll get all riled up and won't be able to concentrate for lesson, so I'm letting you have the rest of the day off of school, this class only!"

Somehow, the entire of the class settled down, much to the teachers disbelief.

"It's Nanami Luchia, Houshou Hanon, Touin Rina and Domouto Kaito."

The class sat silent for a minute before looking at all 4 of them and rushing around their desks before asking loads of questions like…

"Where are you going then?"

"Are you sure we'll never see you again?"

"Kaito-kun, please don't leave, I'll miss you too much!" Stupid Kaito-loving females!

Luchia was starting to get a bit flustered with all the questions being thrown at her. Lucky for her, after their fight with Mikeru, they found out they could all communicate by mind.

*Hanon, Rina Kaito, can we get out of here and get some fresh air?* Luchia asked.

*Yeah, let's go,* Hanon replied.

*I agree,* Rina chipped in

*Same here,* Kaito said

"I'm sorry but we need some air outside," Luchia said standing up. All the students around her desk suddenly spread out so that she could get out. Rina, Kaito and Hanon all stood up too, the other students doing the same thing around their desks too.

After they had left, the teacher said, "I did say you could have the rest of the day off school, if you're going to leave, go out the back gates of school."

All the students packed up their stuff from class and left the classroom, going off to make full use of the rest of their day off. A lot of the students knew better and just left the four leavers alone. Though four girls clearly didn't.

"Oh Kaito-kun, you aren't really leaving are you?" Four girls from Kaito's class all asked at the same time.

"Didn't I tell you once, I'm leaving and I'm not coming back to Japan for a year!" Kaito shouted at them getting a little annoyed with them now. Luchia had gone back home with Rina and Hanon so that they could get ready to tell Nagisa and Masahiro the bad news.

"But Kaito-kun, we love you, you can't leave!" They were getting rather annoying now.

"Listen, I don't want to hurt your feelings but I don't love any of you! I love Luchia, we're going back to her hometown to get married and that's final!" He screamed walking away from the girls, all of them left their shocked. All four of them realised that he was getting married and leaving and thought they should just leave him alone now before he did something worse.

Kaito headed off home thinking about the year that now lay ahead of him. Tonight, he would leave the human world, marry Luchia and come back a year a later. 'It's going to feel a little strange but I'll do anything for Luchia,' Kaito thought.

When he got home he was welcomed by Luchia who asked him to try and help her out with Hanon and Rina, they'd been moping in the kitchen ever since they'd gotten home and didn't respond when Luchia talked to them.

"I'm thinking they really don't want to talk to Nagisa and Masahiro about what's happening. Although, there is one thing, we can try."

"There is?" Kaito asked, thinking 'what on earth could possibly help them now?'

"I'll tell you," she said before whispering her plan in Kaito's ear.

Kaito was more than surprised by the plan. "Hang on, you can actually do that?"

"Yep, let's just hope the two of them agree to it." Luchia said as she pulled Kaito into the kitchen.

As he was pulled into the kitchen, he finally saw what she meant by moping. Both Hanon and Rina were sitting down at a table with their heads on their hands sighing every now and then.

Hanon and Rina had sensed that Luchia had come in. They both whipped their heads around to stare at her but saw Kaito was with her. Kaito ended up getting two very annoyed girls giving him pure evils before turning around and resuming the depressed position.

"Let me guess, this is still because your boyfriends can't come with us, isn't it?"

"No, nothing of the sort…" Hanon began to say, her voice sounding kind of drone and monotone like.

"Yeah, it's nothing like that," Rina finished off. Both of them looked at each other with panic in their eyes, knowing that Luchia had hit it right on the nose.

"I know the two of you are lying to me. You've been sad ever since we mentioned having to leave everyone behind." Luchia sighed before giving the next piece of news. "But, I do have a solution that will work out for you and for Nagisa and Masahiro."

Hanon and Rina began shouting at Luchia, seriously wanting to know, "REALLY? HOW!?"

**"**Well, let me put it this way. You know the rule that says if you tell a human that you're a mermaid, you're supposed to turn into bubbles as punishment. It's actually a lie all made up. If you actually do tell a human, the human that you tell will gain the chance to become a mermaid or a merman with a special ritual spell. If you do tell them but don't know the spell, then you will turn into bubbles after 24 hours."

"So, you're telling me, if we know this ritual and have their consent, we can turn Nagisa and Masahiro into mermen?" Hanon asked, dead shocked.

"Yeah we can, plus, I know the spell," Luchia said pulling a special pen out of her back pocket.

The pen was pure black with ancient writing running down all around it. The nib part of the pen was missing and instead there was just a hole with some magic pink sparks coming out of the top of it, the sparks relating to whichever colour mermaid was holding it. The end of it had a button as well.

"Luchia," Rina began, sounding mad, "you took the mermaid pen without permission!"

"No, not without permission, Aqua-Regina-sama gave it to me a while ago as a gift to keep safe for whenever I needed it.

"Um, clueless person over here, what's the mermaid pen?" Kaito asked raising his hand.

Rina explained it all. "The mermaid pen is a special pen that only works for a mermaid princess, hence the sparks glowing pink because they know the Pink Pearl Mermaid Princes, Luchia, is holding it. The pen can be used to keep objects safe like mermaid mythology books that we have back at the castle. Some are quite valuable so they're kept safe in the pen. It can also be used to write special messages and send them off to the rest of the sea. There are only two of them. Aqua-Regina-sama had them both but one was given to Luchia's Kingdom, the other, is here in Luchia's possession."

"Yup, she's right," Luchia replied. She help the pen tight clicking down the button on the end and holding it whilst she drew a circle reciting the ancient words written on the side. Once she completed the circle, she threw the pen up into the air as it glowed and transformed into the book she needed. It was a special book on mermaid laws and rules. Such as what a mermaid can and can't do.

"Where'd you even find the book?" Kaito asked in suspicion.

"You all remember the time when we went to Gaito's castle to get back Kaito and find Sara? Well, I kinda got lost at one point and stumbled upon the library full of books. I started reading through some of them and found this mermaid law one on rules and laws as to what a mermaid can and can't do. Having the pen on me, I captured the book and have kept it ever since."

"Even though I should be dead mad at you right now for stealing things from Gaito's castle, I more happy that we've found a solution that works for all of us, as long as Masahiro and Nagisa say yes to it." Rina said.

"Well, why don't we go off and break the news to them?" Luchia suggested. She really wanted to find out how Nagisa and Masahiro would act to finding out their girlfriends are mermaids and that they're asking them to become mermen and come live with them for a year in the sea. "How about we see Nagisa first, then go find Masahiro?"

Everyone agreed to the plan and started heading on out.

They eventually arrived at Nagisa's house and rang the doorbell. Nagisa opened the door to see Rina, Luchia, Hanon and Kaito all together.

"Hey, what's the occasion for all four of you turning up to mine?" Nagisa asked.

Hanon stepped forward. "Nagisa, we need to talk!" she said with a rather affirmative voice.

Nagisa stared for a minute. Hanon never usually talked like this unless something serious had happened. He let all of the other 3 inside as well and got them all sat down on the couch. The room was very quiet until Nagisa decided to break it.

"Hanon, what's going on here? You never come over with Luchia, Rina and Kaito, plus you seem kind of nervous about something. This doesn't happen often to you." Nagisa began to asked, he was very worried for Hanon.

"Listen, Nagisa. I'm not who you really think I am…" Hanon began to say but paused, afraid to go further.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not actually a human. In truth, I'm really a… mermaid!"

* * *

**Nexus: So there you go. A nice place to stop the story.**

**Hanon: You made me tell him!**

**Nagisa: But think about it-**

***I'm running out of books now.**

**Nexus: I'll get chapter four up later tonight, maybe around 8 or 9'ish.**

**Everyone: Please R&R, we are deffinately uploading later today!**


	4. Chapter 4: Mermen

**Nexus: Well, I did promise a chapter 4 later on today so here it is.**

**Yukairi: Hey, when do I come back into the story?**

**Nexus: I can't tell you, that's the revealing the- Hey what are you doing!?**

**Yukairi: Found it! I'm co-**

**Nexus: *book throw no jutsu*, I swear to Ra I will stop doing this corner if you lot keep on trying to reveal the story so much.**

**Yukairi: Ow, but it's fun tormenting you.**

**Nexus: T_T Even more reason to lock you in the closet.**

**Yukairi: *shuts up***

**Nagisa/ Rina: Nexus doesn't own Mermaid Melody or the original 7 chapters of 'The Wedding' by MermaidPrincessLilian. Nexus does own Yukairi, Yamuro-Kun and even more future OC's that will appear.**

**Nexus: And with that, let's find out how Nagisa will react to having a mermaid for a girlfriend.**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Mermen**

"I'm not actually a human. In truth, I'm really a… mermaid!" Hanon managed to finally say, her face flustered in shock that she actually welded up the courage to say it.

Nagisa just stared in shock at what Hanon just told him. If the book he heard on mermaid mythology as a child was right and that mermaids would transform for human to mermaid when they are hit with water would explain a lot of things. She could just be joking though for a prank on the other hand.

"Hanon, you'd better be joking about this, there's no way you're actually a mermaid right?" Nagisa asked, praying that it wasn't true and that it was just a joke.

"Well, figures you would say that," Luchia said whilst she grabbed a glass of water, getting ready to pour it over Hanon's head.

"Luchia, what are you…" Nagisa began to say before Luchia suddenly tipped the glass of water over Hanon's head, the cold water rushing down her body, steadily transforming her to her mermaid self.

Nagisa stood up in shock as her legs began to glow with a blue tint and slowly come together before her tail appeared along with the growing hair and the clothes disappearance leaving her shell bra in their place.

Nagisa couldn't bring himself to say anything, he just stood there staring at Hanon. His girlfriend that he had been going out with for a year or two was actually a mermaid. This also meant that all the mermaid mythology wasn't lies.

"Now do you believe me?" Hanon asked him. Nagisa still couldn't bring himself to say anything so he just nodded his head.

"This isn't all I came to tell you. There are a few more things I need to say as well. It's safe to break out the fact that Luchia and Rina are both mermaids like me as well," Hanon began before being interrupted by Nagisa.

"What about Kaito, is he like you as well?" Nagisa asked, shocked that he had actually been able to form some words.

"Sort of, I'm a Panthalassa Prince which is one of 20 clans in the sea but I'm just a human who can breathe underwater really." Kaito explained. It's true, he's basically a human who can breathe underwater.

Hanon began talking again. "An now for the next bit of news. Luchia and Kaito are getting married to each other as part of something Luchia has to do and so we're all returning to Luchia's home in the sea and won't be coming back to shore for a year after that's happened. This would mean leaving you for a year which I didn't want to happen. However, thanks to Luchia's snooping around in previous events, she found a book, *Luchia's shows book*, with an ancient Ritual spell that allows a human who's had a mermaid reveal their identity to them, the chance to become a mermaid or merman instead of the revealed mermaid turning into bubbles like legends claim."

Nagisa had calmed down slightly by now but his brain was still having a little bit of difficulty to process all of what Hanon said. "What does all of it mean then?"

"It means that because I don't want leave you behind, I'm asking you and giving you the choice to become a merman so that we don't have to break up. I should warn you that if you don't say yes or no to this, in 24 hours, I will be bubbles."

Nagisa was literally on the verge of breaking down. His girlfriends a mermaid, her two best friends are, one of their boyfriends is basically the same as them and now he's being asked if he'll become a merman and stay together with Hanon. And if he doesn't say yes or no, Hanon will die? It was all a little too much for one person to take in. In his heart and mind though, Nagisa couldn't stand the thought of leaving Hanon behind knowing that he wouldn't see her for another year otherwise. He couldn't live with that. He had one option and he was going to choose it.

"Hanon, I've come to a decision. I can't just stay here whilst you leave for a year, I want to become a merman!" he said affirmatively.

Now it was Hanon's turn to be shocked. "Nagisa, you're sure?"

"I've never been so sure in my entire life right now. Like I said, I'm can't just leave you behind!"

Upon saying those words, Luchia's eyes began to glow a Fuchsia Pink colour. "Then the ritual can begin," she said, although it wasn't her voice.

"Aqua-Regina-sama?" Hanon, Rina and Kaito said in shock, looking at the glowing eyed Luchia.

"Yes, it's me. Since Luchia's my successor I talk through her to you now." Her/ Luchia's head turned to look at Nagisa. "You're Nagisa?"

"Yes ma-am." He answered.

"I'm glad you said yes. Please enjoy your life as a merman with Hanon, it's a wonderful gift and you're very lucky. Now, if you both of you would just take a seat sitting opposite each other and Rina and Kaito move to the back wall."

They all followed the orders, Hanon and Nagisa sitting on chairs across from each other, Rina and Kaito moving to the back of the room. Luchia/ Aqua-Regina stood in-between the two of them yet stood back a little. She held her left hand out to the side making her staff appear. Her left hand holding it lower down and her right hand higher up about level with her face.

She raised it a little higher and a light began to glow on the ground which expanded into a circle surrounding Hanon, Nagisa and Luchia. Luchia/ Aqua-Regina then began to chant the ancient Ritual.

"This human has revealed the identity of the Mermaid Houshou Hanon and he may no longer stay in a human for. Instead, he will become one of the sea, a merman, and I, Aqua-Regina-sama sign this human, Nagisa, to become the aquamarine merman of the South Atlantic Ocean and to live along side Mermaid Princess Hanon in the future!"

At the last word, Hanon and Nagisa were both taken into the air. Hanon suddenly transformed back to her mermaid form, her tail and pearl both glowing once more. This was when Nagisa's legs began to glow and slowly fused together into a tail. When the glow disappeared, the tail had fully formed, being the same colour as Hanon's but there are no pearl circles around the bottom, the floating fins are a more sharper towards the bottom and sort of blend dark blue at the ends. Also there's no curly part at the top, just a black circle, almost like a belt. His top also vanished into thin air leaving him bear chested. He then also gained a blue band around his left hand with a shell similar to the girls. Instead of having the curly wings, a pair of black bat like wings were in their places. The shell was the same colour as Hanon's but faded down into a darker blue ending in a very deep blue/black colour. His hair stayed the same colour but became a little longer and had a couple of wild spikes coming out of the left side. His eyes also changed colour and became the same sort of blue as Hanon's, again, going a little darker yet they glowed a very bright blue around the edges. After this Hanon transformed back into her human form whereas Nagisa remained in his new form. They both floated back down into their chairs, the circle of light disappearing as well as Aqua-Regina's staff and also Luchia's glowing Fuchsia eyes leaving Luchia with a headache before looking back up at the new Nagisa.

"Wow, he came out really well… It worked!" She smiled widely hugging Hanon.

"Yeah, it did," Hanon replied, taking in the hug, "and he turned out better looking than I thought he would."

"What the-" Nagisa said as he was still in his new merman form whereas Hanon had gone back to normal. He took the time to take a good look over himself and found out that he actually liked this new form of his.

"Don't worry, it should wear off any minute now," Hanon said and almost as if she was psychic, he transformed back to the normal Nagisa. "There are a few more things you need to take into consideration now. You mustn't tell anyone about what's just happened to you. Every time you come into contact with about as much water as I did when Luchia poured that glass on me or more, you will instantly turn into your merman. You can still drink water and stuff. Also, you might want to get use to taking baths, it might be a little bit hard as a merman to take showers anymore."

"So, just to be sure, all I have to do is not get into too much contact with water or I will turn into a merman?" Nagisa asked just to check if he got it all.

"Yep, now, go up and pack a waterproof bag with anything you want to take with you for the year ahead, we're leaving tonight.

"Eh, TONIGHT, NOW!?" He screamed running upstairs to pack his bags.

**-Time change: About 20 or so minutes-**

"Nagisa, hurry up or else we won't have enough time. What on earth where you packing back up there?" Hanon asked as he finally re-appeared again.

"I'm sorry. There's a lot to pack you know," he replied. Hanon looked at his bag and yet all he had was a normal size waterproof back pack tightly sealed and yes, everything inside is in waterproof bags as well. She wouldn't even bother trying to lecture him this time.

"Well, next stop is Masahiro's house!" Hanon shouted pointing to the front door.

"Why Masahiro's house?" Nagisa asked, very confused.

"We're going to do what we just did to you but on Masahiro. You didn't think we'd leave Rina's boyfriend out did you?"

"No, I didn't think of that. Well, at least I'm not alone in this whole 'my girlfriends a mermaid and is turning me into a merman' business."

Nagisa opened the door letting everyone else out and they began trekking again, all the way down to Masahiro's house.

-**Time change, again: 30 odd minutes now at Masahiro's front door-**

"Well, best of luck with this Rina," Hanon said to her, hand on her shoulder.

"Thanks," is all Rina said before ringing the doorbell. A few seconds later, Masahiro appeared at the front door wondering why his girlfriend and her friends and their boyfriends had all rolled up outside his door.

"Masahiro, we need to talk about something," Rina said affirmatively.

Masahiro just nodded his head and let everyone inside.

Masahiro was kind of surprised. Rina hardly ever turned up to his house to see him, let alone the fact that Luchia, Hanon, Kaito and Nagisa had come with too. He let them all inside and got them all settled down before asking them all why they were here. Rina stepped up to say "We need to talk about a serious matter. Do you remember I said that one day I would have to leave here?"

"Yeah, just don't tell me that it's now that you have to," Masahiro said praying it wasn't true.

"Sadly it is."

"All of you too?" Masahiro asked looking over at Luchia, Hanon, Kaito and Nagisa. They all gave him a head nod and then he turned back to Rina when she started talking again.

"Anyway, that isn't the only reason I came here. This isn't so much as to say goodbye but, what I'm trying to say is… come with me?"

"Where are you going then?" Masahiro asked with great interest.

"The sea." Rina replied.

"Huh?"

"You know, the sea."

"Yeah, are you going to like an island or something?"

"No, we're going under the sea"

Masahiro was now starting to become even more confused at this point. "What do you by under it?"

Rina sighed. "Listen, this isn't easy for me to say but I have to tell you the truth now. I'm not really a human… I'm actually the mermaid princess of the North Atlantic Ocean. And so I'm asking, will you come with me?"

Masahiro's eyes widened at the news. He'd always suspected there was something weird and now he had the explanation as to why Rina would never go near water. So that he wouldn't find out what she was, but why tell him now?

"I must admit I'm a little shocked but then I always suspected there was something strange about you Rina. Just a few questions though. 1) How will I come with you? I can't breathe underwater and I'm not a mermaid. 2) What about those 5, are the all like you as well?

Rina sighed once more. "To answer your second question first, Luchia and Hanon are Mermaid Princesses, like me. Kaito is a Panthalassa Prince, born from a clan of the sea. As for Nagisa, this answer ties in the answer to your first question too. Luchia found an ancient Ritual spell that can turn a human, who a mermaid has revealed their identity to, into a mermaid/merman. You can take a wild guess and say that's what happened. Nagisa agreed to it all and now he's a merman. And this is what I'm asking you. Will you, become a merman and live with me for the next year? We have to go back tonight and won't return for a year so this is a one-time offer."

Masahiro was sort of in the same state that Nagisa had been in at the time except he was bit more calmer about the whole situation. Simple really, he loved Rina and like Nagisa, he wasn't going to stay here and leave Rina.

"I've made my decision. Rina, I'll take up your offer of becoming a merman and come with you," he said in a very calm relaxing voice to make Rina happy.

"You will?" she asked blushing.

"Yes."

"Well then, let the ritual begin once more," a voice said. Aqua-Regina had re-taken control of Luchia.

"Rina, what's wrong with Luchia," Masahiro asked now seeing Luchia's glowing eyes.

"That? That's the goddess of the sea, Aqua-Regina Sama, talking through Luchia's body," Rina replied.

"Masahiro-kun?" Aqua-Regina sama asked.

"Yes?" he asked back with a face of confusion.

"Thank you for saying yes. It's a wonderful gift Rina has given you. Please, enjoy your life with her as a merman."

Hanon, Kaito and Nagisa all moved to the back wall of Masahiro's lounge and Rina set out two chairs for her and Masahiro to sit on. Luchia repeated the process again.

Luchia/ Aqua-Regina stood in-between the two of them yet stood back a little. She held her left hand out to the side making her staff appear. Her left hand holding it lower down and her right hand higher up about level with her face.

She raised it a little higher and a light began to glow on the ground which expanded into a circle surrounding Rina, Masahiro and Luchia. Luchia/ Aqua-Regina then began to chant the ancient Ritual.

"This human has revealed the identity of the Mermaid Touin Rina and he may no longer stay in a human for. Instead, he will become one of the sea, a merman, and I, Aqua-Regina-sama sign this human, Masahiro, to become the green merman of the North Atlantic Ocean and to live alongside Mermaid Princess Rina in the future!"

At the last word, Rina and Masahiro were both taken into the air. Rina suddenly transformed back to her mermaid form, her tail and pearl both glowing once more. This was when Masahiro's legs began to glow and slowly fused together into a tail. When the glow disappeared, the tail had fully formed, being the same colour as Rina's but there are no pearl circles around the bottom, the floating fins are a more sharper towards the bottom and sort of blend dark green at the ends. Also there's no curly part at the top, just a black circle, almost like a belt. His top also vanished into thin air leaving him bare chested. He then also gained a green band around his left hand with a shell similar to the girls. Instead of having the curly wings, a pair of black bat like wings were in their places. The shell was the same colour as Rina's but faded down into a darker green ending in a very deep green/black colour. His hair stayed the same colour but became longer down to just above mid back. The left side was very spiky and the right side stayed flat. His eyes also changed colour and became the same sort of green as Rina's, again, going a little darker yet they glowed a very bright green around the edges. After this Rina transformed back into her human form whereas Masahiro remained in his new form. They both floated back down into their chairs, the circle of light disappearing as well as Aqua-Regina's staff and also Luchia's glowing Fuchsia eyes leaving Luchia with a headache before looking back up at the new Masahiro.

"Yes, it worked again!" Luchia cried in happiness.

Masahiro looked at himself in shock. His glasses had gone and he could see much more clearly than he could before.

"Don't worry, you'll have your legs back in a second." Again, these girls are like psychics as Masahiro reverted back to normal. "I'll tell you what we told Nagisa. You mustn't tell anyone about what's just happened to you. Every time you come into contact with water, you will change. You need about a good regular half glass of water to do so. You can still drink water and stuff. Also, you might want to get use to taking baths, it might be a little bit hard as a merman to take showers any more " She took a breath letting Masahiro take it all in before breaking out the next bit of news. "Also, you need to pack a waterproof bag as we leave for the sea tonight like I said."

"Alright, just give me a few minutes then," Masahiro replied as he head upstairs.

**-Second to last time change: 10 minutes later-**

Masahiro came down the stairs with his back pack all ready to go.

Rina gave him a nod before announcing, "Alright, now that we're all ready to go, let's go back to the Pearl Piari."

Everyone headed on out the door and out back to the Pearl Piari. When they got there, they opened the door to find Nikora, Taki-san and Hippo all standing there packed and ready to go, Hippo was in his human form.

He said to them all, "Where have you guys been? We were all worried about you…" Hippo had suddenly paused because he saw Masahiro and Nagisa with them with bags too. "What are you two doing here?" Hippo had a bad thought forming in his head when Masahiro starting talking.

"To put it short, Luchia-chan found a spell that allows a mermaid to turn a human who they reveal their identity to into a merman or mermaid."

"So in short, Hanon and Rina turned me and Masahiro into mermen and now we're coming with all of you." Nagisa finished off for him.

Hippo fell down anime style at the news as he thought that Luchia might have done something stupid like that for them all. He stood back up again when the doorbell went.

"Huh, wonder who that could be?" Luchia wondered as she went to open the door.

A face not seen very often popped up.

It was Gaito

"Gaito! What are you doing here?" Luchia asked, shocked and kinda still slightly scared at the same time.

"I came here to talk with Kaito, if that's okay with you," he asked. His voice was a little bit lighter after the incident. This is my fanfic and at the end of the first season where the castle sunk down in the sea, Sara and Gaito survived, having been given a second chance by Aqua-Regina. Gaito wasn't dressed in his normal attire either. He was now wearing a plain medium grey t-shirt, black skinny jeans and a pair of black canvas trainers as well.

He walked inside over to Kaito after Luchia moved to the side to let her in.

"We need to talk," he said strongly to Kaito, leading him into the kitchen away from everyone else.

"What do you want Gaito?" Kaito asked suspiciously.

"I just came to warn you about something is all. I sense a new danger rising in the sea, one that could change whether you get married to Luchia or not, I'll tell you more in due time about this. Also, I think Luchia has a surprise in store for you after she stole my book on ancient mermaid lore."

"You know it was her that took it?" Kaito asked

"Well, the mermaid pen usually leaves a trace of colour when an object is captures with it, that's how I worked it out. Plus, from remembering what's in, I'm pretty sure I know what she's up to. From the looks of it, I'm certain she turned those two boys in here into mermen didn't she?"

Kaito's eyes widened, he'd hit it right on the nose.

"Seems I'm right about that," he trailed off as he walked back into the lounge and teleported out of the room.

"Who is that guy anyway Kaito?" Nagisa asked.

"He's my brother Gaito. He's like me, a Panthalassa prince. We were separated at birth and a lot happened over the years. He used to be bad and wanted to control the seas but now he is good. He only became evil because whilst I was sent to the surface to live my life, he was still living in his castle at the bottom of the sea."

"Wow, sounds like he and you have been through quite a lot then?" Masahiro said.

"Yeah, we have. But that matter aside, we really should be leaving now, or we'll never make it by late tonight. *It's about 6 over there*"

All of them headed outside the Pearl Piari, staring at it one last time. They all walked down to the ocean and got ready to jump.

Hanon and Rina jumped in first, Masahiro and Nagisa following so that the girls could give their boys a quick swimming lesson and some basics.

Hippo, Nikora and Taki-san jumped in as well. Hippo going into his Hippocampus from and Taki-san as a clam shell (I'm pretty sure you all remember that from episode 13 of the first season).

Kaito was getting ready to jump in, until Luchia stopped her.

"Wait, Kaito," she said holding him back.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Well, I've got a surprise for you…"

"You do?"

"Yeah, I just need you to stand close to the water so that when I finish, you fall backwards in the sea. I also just need you to say a colour."

Kaito was quite intrigued as to what she had planned for him but he went along with it. He stood near the water's edge and said "red."

Luchia held her second finger on her right hand up and began to chant in ancient language again. A red light lit up on the end of that finger as she moved it to Kaito's forehead. His Panthalassa mark responded to it by beginning to glow. The light transferred into the symbol as it began to glow red now instead. When the light died, Kaito began to feel faint falling backwards into the sea, Luchia jumping in pursuit.

When Luchia had jumped in, she shouted out to everyone, "Move away from Kaito, NOW!"

Everyone stared at Kaito confused for a minute. They saw what Luchia meant and quickly moved away as a blast of red light enveloped Kaito's body, trapping him inside a bubble so that no-one could see him.

The transformation had begun.

* * *

**Nexus: Wow that was a longer chapter than I thought. It was originally two chapters but I put them together because they became a little too short to be a chapter otherwise.**

**Kaito: Um, Nexus, what on Earth did Luchia do to me?**

**Nexus: I'm not telling anyone.**

***Luchia rushes over to check script but on the way is hit by a flying Death Note 13 book and falls over***

**Nexus: *smirks* I win!**

**Luchia: Fine, I guess trying to reveal a chapter isn't worth getting hurt for.**

**Nexus: You're the first one to learn that Luchia, well done. I'm back to college tomorrow so it might be one or two days before I get the next chapter up. I hate to say it, but updating will be a little slower after this week. I'll be moving house, doing even more college work so I won't have as much time to update. I plan on finishing this part 1 by at least the end of October, maybe earlier. Then I'll see what I want to do from them, I'll probably start story juggling then.**

**Everyone: See you when we next upload a chapter guys!**


	5. Chapter 5: We're finally home

**Nexus: As promised, a chapter 5!**

**Luchia: She's looking for around 15 odd chapters, she'll be happy with that but she might take it further than she thinks.**

**Nagisa/ Rina: Nexus don't own the 7 chapters of 'The Wedding' by MermaidPrincessLilian but she does own all her OC's used in this story and her ideas from now on really!**

**Nexus: So, without further ado, here's chapter 5!**

**Yukairi: Yay, do I get to appear now?**

**Nexus: Maybe…**

**Nexus: I also want to thank all of my reviewers who have reviewed the story so far.**

**So thank you to… Mermaid-Hanon, Mermaid-Luchia, Erza Scarlets, KJC71790 and magic135.**

**I'm also giving Chapter Dedication to Erza Scarlet because by PM she sort of worked out what I was doing in this chapter so well done, chapter dedication to you, NOW ON WITH THE STORY!**

* * *

Chapter 5: We're finally home

Everyone had to shield their eyes from the bubble of red light that had enveloped Kaito's body, making him unable to see.

Within the bubble, Kaito slowly began to stir from his fainting.

"What the… where am I?" he asked himself as he looked around the bubble.

Before he could think of anything else to say or do, swirls of red magic began to circle Kaito's body then clung onto him really tight, causing unbelievable pain. He screamed like mad at the pain it caused him, yet no one could hear him. The pain actually caused him to pass out for the rest of the transformation. The red magic lifted itself from his body and began circling his legs. They began to glow a slight red and slowly fused into a tail. It was similar to everyone else's. Like Nagisa and Masahiro, he had a black circle around his waist like a belt, except right in the centre of it, a black Panthalassa symbol had appeared. Going down his new tail, it was a rich velvet red colour. The end fins were a lot like the boy's ones as well. Started as the normal tail colour, and then faded down into black. If of anything, the end of Kaito's fins looked more sharp and deadly. His clothes had been lost once he entered the bubble so of course he was bear chested like the others. His Panthalassa necklace hung around his neck as well as the appearance of his old headband. His hair had become a little wilder and also richer in tone. Also, like the boys, a deep red shell fading into black had appeared on a red band down on his wrist, adorning a pair of black bat wings to boot. Once this had all finished, the bubble began to slowly disintegrate, revealing the new Kaito to everyone else.

Everyone floated just staring at the new Kaito, waiting for him to stir from the transformation.

Kaito slowly bean to re-open his eyes once more, which were now glowing a lighter orange colour with traces of red around the sides. Since his head was facing down when he passed out from the pain of the magic, the first thing he saw was a tail and Kaito being Kaito, he freaked out.

"Ahhhh! Luchia, just what did you do to me?" Kaito asked, shocked, yet scared at the same time.

"Well, everyone else coming back with us has a tail and you didn't. There was another spell in that book I found that gives clans of the sea the ability to have a tail as long as they eat a piece of seaweed toast every day. If not, they suddenly lose the ability to breathe. A small price to pay for it all. Also, I thought it would be easier since you'll be swimming around a lot more. It isn't permanent though, it lasts for ages as long as the user doesn't surface. It can also only be used once by each mermaid princess." Luchia explained, Kaito and everyone else, taking in the information.

Kaito's shock wore off and was replaced with a gentle smile. Using his new tail, he swam over to Luchia and gave her a big hug followed by a quick kiss.

"Thank you, Luchia; it was kind of you to do this."

"It's okay, anything for you," she replied back, smiling.

"Umm, if you don't mind…" Hippo said clearing his throat, "we have a palace to get to by later tonight and it's a long way down and out so come one!"

Everyone followed Hippo down and out in pursuit.

Kaito swam down to Luchia finding that it was surprisingly easy to swim with a tail; it must be something in his blood really. When he got to her, he held her hand and they both swam together.

Hanon was waiting for Nagisa on the other hand. Getting rather frustrated by this point, she shouted "Oi, Nagisa, come on, hurry up!"

"I'm coming, this is hard to swim with you know!" he shouted back at her. Hanon just sighed and swam up to him. She held his hand and began pulling him slightly so that he could get use to swimming and before he knew it, he was swimming normally.

Rina and Masahiro where fine and just swam normally. It was quite peaceful on their end until Masahiro randomly said "So, how far is Luchia-chan's Kingdom?"

Rina turned to face him and said "Don't worry; it's only a bit further. I'm also surprised that you can swim so well with a tail." She giggled slightly on the last bit.

Masahiro just giggled slightly too and said "Yeah, to tell you the truth, when I was little, I wasn't really any good with my feet but I always went to the pool and swam with my legs together, as if I had a tail almost." (This is just made up btw)

"Well, that's one method that I haven't heard of," she replied. The rest of journey was kind of silent.

Most of the eyes fell on Kaito for the majority of the journey. Masahiro and Nagisa were more shocked than the rest. They were the only two who hadn't been told about the surprise Luchia had in store for Kaito. They boys had been through an entire transformation and would remain like this and would have to adapt to a new way of living when they returned. Kaito would never face that. Once he returned to the surface after a year, it would be like nothing ever happened to him.

After the last final bit of travel, they finally reached Luchia's kingdom.

Everyone was shocked; the reasons of some had never seen it and others really missed the place so much.

They all went in inside and wandered why it was kind of quiet, they went down a hallway and saw three mermaids waiting at the end of the hallway. The all said "Welcome home, Luchia-sama" as everyone passed by them. All of a sudden one mermaid zoomed straight into a hug with Luchia and shouted, "Welcome home, Luchia-sama!"

"I'm home, Yukairi!" Luchia replied. Yukairi eventually pulled away. As a mermaid she still had the same hair colour she had as a human, except her hair now went down to her waist but remained the same style. Also the fringe became longer on one side and covered her left eye. Her tail was a light pastel peach colour. When she pulled away, she looked over at Kaito and squinted for a second before shouting, "Kaito?!"

"Yeah?" he asked.

"You have a… why do you have a…"

"A tail?" He finished for her.

"Yeah,"

He sighed, "Long story short, Luchia used spell to do it."

"Fair enough," she said in reply. She then looked over to see two other people who she'd not seen before. "And uh, who are the other two then? Those boys…"

Hippo then came out of nowhere, now in his human form but dressed like he was in Gaito's castle, in his robes. "Allow me to explain about all 3 of them," he began to say. "You know Kaito is a Panthalassa prince but thanks to Luchia doing some wandering around Gaito's castle…" "Hey, I wasn't wandering, I got lost and I was curious!" Luchia furiously butted in. Everyone there just sweat dropped but Hippo just cleared his throat and carried on, "It's the same thing!" Luchia looked ready to protest against him but Kaito held her back and convinced her to just stay with him. "Carrying on, because of Luchia, she found a mermaid lore book in it that hand many spells. She used a mermaid pen that Aqua-Regina-sama gave her. As you can guess, the book had a plethora of spells in it, one of them being the ability to give a clan member of the sea a tail so long as they don't surface. There is one thing though, just give him some seaweed toast every day or else the ability to breathe suddenly disappears. As for the other two over there, Hanon and Rina revealed themselves to these two, Nagisa, the blue one and Masahiro, the green one, making them gain the chance to become mermen. They agreed and so here they are, living with us for a year."

All of a sudden, quite a few mermaids came out and started to ask Nagisa and Masahiro loads of questions. They didn't exactly know what to say to them so they just said 'sorry' and then shouted out, "Hanon/ Rina, we should probably go, what's next?"

Nikora had heard the two shout and stepped in for Hanon and Rina. "All right everyone, clear up! The princesses and their guests need some sleep." Everyone around them just groaned and started heading off.

"Well then, all of you, go and get some rest, tomorrow is going to be a busy day for everyone, more or so you two," Taki said and she turned her head when she said 'you two' towards Luchia and Kaito. Both of them nodded and headed off down to Luchia's room. Hanon and Nagisa then followed and after them where Rina and Masahiro. After following the front two for a while, both Hanon and Rina swerved off down 2 different corridors that lead to separate rooms. Luchia had her room and Rina and Hanon each had their own room here should they need to come stay over for any reasons.

Finally reaching Luchia's room, Kaito opened the door to surprisingly find that her room here looked so much like her room at the Pearl Piari in the human world. "Wow, your room looks just like your old one." Kaito said in shock.

"Yeah, it's so if we ever had to come down here again, I wouldn't feel human world home sick." Luchia explained. She suddenly had a massive yawn at the end of her sentence and headed on over to the bed. The majority of her room did look like the one she had in the human world. The bed was a little different though. The base of it was wood like usual but then the mattress was pretty much a soft sea sponge like substance, it kinda felt like a memory foam mattress, very comfy. And instead of a normal duvet, it was pink seaweed woven together; it was hard in shape, but very soft in feel.

"Huh, going to sleep already? Kaito asked her with a kinda sad look on his face.

"Yes, yes I am. I'm very tired; my tail aches like hell and tomorrow is supposed to be a really busy day for us all. Taki probably wants to get the marriage work done as soon as possible. The quicker it's done, the less time we have to spend down here making sure everything's in order and then, we can go back to living on the surface again!" She said, half happy, half very tired and in need of some serious sleep.

Kaito just smiled and joined Luchia for some well needed sleep. Luchia slept on one side whilst Kaito slept on the other, rapping his arms around her, falling into deep, well needed, well deserved, sleep.

Tomorrow was going to be a long day, and not as fun as planned. New dangers are constantly rising and some clans out there oppose the idea of a Panthalassa member, a man whose clan tried to kill the mermaid world ages ago, marrying into higher royalty.

* * *

**Nexus: Sorry if it seemed kinda rushed, there was kind of no other way to get the next chapter all set and ready. Next chapter though, the action of this fanfic finally begins!**

**Everyone: WHOOOOOOOO**

**Kaito: So that's what Luchia did to me, turned me into a merman?**

**Nexus: In short yes, but it's not permanent. *whisper mode* not yet at least**

**Kaito: what was that?**

**Nexus: NOTHING, that was nothing… even so-**

**Everyone: See you all next time, for chapter 6!**


	6. Chapter 6: The weird dream

**Everyone: Chapter 6!**

**Nexus: From now on, it's all my own! MY IDEAS FROM HERE ON OUT!**

**Luchia: So, you've decided to vere off from the original?**

**Nexus: After Lilian sent me a lengthly list of things I needed to do for acceptance of this fic veering off here is the best choice. From now on, I'm on my own and man it is fun!**

**Nagisa: Glad you're finally seeing it! Also, Nexus never owned the original 7 and any more Chapters of 'The Wedding' by MermaidPrincessLilian, lord praise her! Also doesn't own Mermaid Melody, if she did, she wouldn't have tortured Luchia is season 2.**

**Rina: She does own Yukairi, any other to come OC's and as she said, her ideas from here on out.**

**Nexus: Thank you, one more chapter and your job is over. I've even got the next 2 chosen.**

**Hanon, Yukairi, Luchia, Masahiro, Kaito, Yamuro, Ha... (name not to be said) and Gaito: *gulp**

**Nexus: On with chapter 6**

* * *

Chapter 6: The weird dream, Luchia's kidnapping

That night hadn't been the greatest night ever for Kaito. Sound asleep in his bed but he was having the weirdest dream of his life, weirder than the ones when he had his memory stolen.

He was standing outside Gaito's castle, now in his Panthalassa Prince from. Gaito's Castle still stood as dark and as garish as it had ever been. The gates opened up, beckoning Kaito forward. He wandered into the darkness of the Hallways only being stopped because he couldn't see anymore.

A few seconds later, the lights switched on, revealing the messed up room.

Gaito was sitting in his old chair, wearing nothing on his top half, bare chested and holding what appeared to be a glass of red wine. That wasn't so messed up, but 2 Luchia's chained to either side of the back wall was. Both of them in mermaid form too. Both looked exactly the same, no differences between then. Well, when I said Gaito wasn't that messed up, his hair had changed slightly now being pure black with silver highlights running through it and his eyes shone blood red with glowing silver around the edges.

"Luchia!" Kaito shouted, confused as to which one he should look at. Were they both fake?

"So, took you long enough to get here..." Gaito said slowly smiling.

"Gaito..." Kaito began to say until he let out a gasp. His eyes trailed down Gaito's body, sure he looked a little different in the face and hair but his lower half was what caught his attention.

Gaito's lower half adorned a silver tail with a black rim bearing the Panthalassa symbol. His tail looked almost exactly like Kaito, except for a few tiny detals. The fins on the ends were even sharper than Kaito's and didn't appear to move with the waves, the Panthalassa symbol on the rim of his waist was also more shinier and more realistic looking. Going off that, if you took Kaito's tail and replaced all the red with Silver, you have Gaito.

Gaito noticed his staring. "What's up?"

"You, how... you need a mermaid princess with a pearl to have a tail as a clan member," Kaito remembered.

"Work it out then, it's permanent!" Gaito said plainly.

"Permanent?"

"Yes, permanent, and I can see that's not all you want to ask me. Let me answer everything you want to know..." Gaito trailed off closing his eyes.

Kaito stood there in shock not sure what was going on.

Gaito re-opened his eyes, which were now glowing a significantly brighter red than before.

"You want to know why I have a permanent tail. Aqua-Regina put me through a special trial in order to gain one. I can still use my Panthalassa form, it's just like transforming really. As to what the trial was, it links to the two fake Luchia's on the back wall and the reason I'm making you have this dream. The trial involves someone, a random person, being possessed to take the person most dearest and important from you. A clone of them in created and the person is set free from the possession. The point of the trial is to work out which one the real person is. Work it out and you become a merman properly and follow the rules that everyone else does. The difference is very hard though, a very small inside detail, a question that only the real Luchia can answer. Choose the wrong one and death awaits the person who's been copied. Having been forced into the trial like you will be, it took me 3 weeks trying to work out which Sara was the real one. I'll save the reason of why Aqua-Regina sent me through the trial for another time. It's not important for now. Even so, my time is up, I must leave," Gaito finally finished saying, his body beginning to fade.

"Wait, Gaito!" Kaito shouted as everything around him began to fade away.

Kaito woke up panicking in a fresh sweat, Luchia staring at him funny.

"Kaito, did something happen to you?" Luchia asked with the most worried look on her face.

"Hmmm, no it's fine, just a dream, nothing major," Kaito told her softly not wanting to tell her what was going to happen to Luchia. He was scared as hell because any day from now, Luchia would be taken away and copied. If that wasn't bad enough, if he picks the wrong Luchia, it's game over. "Even so, time for breakfast anyway isn't it?" he bean to say whilst pulling in Luchia for his morning kiss.

During the kiss, Nagisa opened the door.

"Luchia, Kaito, breakfast is ready and..." Nagisa began to say until he realised the couple where in the middle of a very deep and passionate kiss. "I'll leave them a note. He quickly swam off to get a pen and paper and slipped the note under the door.

Once Luchia and Kaito were finished, they got up only for Kaito to notice the slip on the floor.

"Huh, what's that?" Luchia asked

"A note from Nagisa..." Kaito replied getting ready to read it out loud.

"Dear, Luchia and Kaito, since I kinda walked in on your morning kiss, I didn't want to disrupt it so I left you this note. Hanon wanted me to tell you that breakfast is ready and we'll be waiting in the main dining hall for you two. Also breakfast is boiled clams, seaweed toast, lobster claws and marafume juice (it's something I just made up, it's like orange juice that you can drink underwater, made by a special process with coral), hope to see you there soon, Nagisa and everyone else."

Kaito turned around to see Luchia's face turning blue, "Luchia?"

"I... hate boiled clams..." she replied.

"You don't have to eat them though do you?"

"I hope not, in my younger years here, Nikora used to force me to eat them because they were a high source of fibre and iron the way our maids make them. I've hated them for as long as I can remember, they taste horrible!" she shouted in her explaining.

"I'm pretty sure we can work around it, but come on, let's go eat."

And with that, both left down the long winding corridors to the Palaces breakfast room. A long table ahead of them filled with Coral items from plates and candles to cutlery and chairs. The Coral was tame though, not sharp, well, the cutlery was, and that was the whole point. Seaweed Toast was laid out on their places at the table and the Boiled Clams were in baskets spread across the whole table. Pitchers of Marafume juice were layed out along with Coral glasses and lobster claws placed on side plates next to each plate. Right now, only Luchia's friends, Taki, Nikora, Yukairi and Hippo were there but every other mermaid in the castle had already eaten and had gone off to do their work.

"WOW, breakfast looks better than I though it would be!" Kaito exclaimed digging into the lobster and seaweed toast, remember the rule that Luchia told him, a piece of seaweed toast everyday to keep the breathing system alive. Sadly, he bit into a boiled clam next and saw what Luchia meant. Turning toward her with a sour face, he said "now I can see why you don't like them..."

"Thank you for seeing my point, they're disgusting."

The rest of breakfast went pretty well, the group all had a general chat about how they were finding in being down here. Nagisa and Masahiro loved it more than they thought they would. It was a whole new experience for them and they were now part of something very special. Kaito left out the matter of the dream and would just hold out like nothing was happening.

Everyone was about to go off to carry on the day looking at stuff needed to be done for the up and coming wedding until a knock on the palace doors caught everyone off guard.

Luchia being princess went to open it see who it was. She opened to door, eyes closed smiling, "how can I help you?"

She opened her eyes to a strange sight.

Gaito was here, in his merman form like he was in Kaito's dream but a black and dark purple aura was emminating from his body.

Luchia let out a gaps, not sure what to be surprised at. The fact that Gaito looked evil or the fact that he had a tail?

"I'm here for you, Luchia!" He screamed as the dark aura grew, enveloping Luchia's body and parts of the castle entrance.

Kaito's nightmare was coming true. He just didn't think it would be his own brother who would get possessed. He could do nothing but watch as Luchia was dragged away from the palace.

"LUCHIA!"

Kaito tried to force his body to move, yet it wouldn't respond to him. He collapsed on the floor, a stream of tears and sobs following. He didn't think that Luchia would be taken so soon and that he would have more time to warn her. He didn't even think that Gaito would be the one who got possessed. His brain told him that everything would be fine, but his heart said something was truly wrong.

* * *

**Nexus: And boom, end of chapter!**

**Luchia: ... what the hell, Gaito's a merman now, how?**

**Kaito: I know but I can't say, I don't feel like getting a book thrown at my head.**

**Nagisa: Isn't this getting all a little messed up now?**

**Nexus: More things will be explained at the beginning of chapter 7. Also, it's my fanfic and I'll lock you in the closet doom for being annoying if I want to...**

**Everyone: *shuts up**

**Nexus: Good, see you all for chapter 7, most likely to be this weekend when I do it!**


	7. Chapter 7: Seeing Double

**Everyone but moi: NEXUS! It's been just over a month since you've updated!**

**Nexus: I'm sorry but with all my social life things which I won't drag on about today, I've been a little too busy to update this. And I was really getting into writing my other fanfic but I do need time for the ideas for that one to start flowing again. By the way, this chapter is all off of the top of my head, I lost all my script work so I'm using my dreams to create the story for me. Finally, some inspiration came to me!**

**Judai: So... are you kicking the Yugioh GX cast out again?**

**Nexus: Answer my question and leave would ya?**

**GX cast leave.**

**Luchia: Took them long enough...**

**Hanon: They kept us out of here for a month, they need some time off...**

**Nexus: Luchia, Hanon, perfect timing! You're the two who are on brand new claimer and disclaimer duty! Luchia disclaimer, Hanon the other.**

**Hanon and Luchia: REALLY?**

**Nexus: Yes really! Also means you probably won't do it again for a while. Everybody gets one.**

**But, we don't need claimer and disclaimer for this chapter, you should know by now what I own and don't own. That and Nagisa and Rina can't be found anywhere today, they're hiding from their duty but it is over now.**

**And now, on with the ever so long-awaited so sorry CHAPTER 7 BITCHES!**

* * *

Chapter 7: Seeing double

**Last time- Kaito was screaming Luchia's name before falling into a heap of tears and sobs.**

"Luchia, why, why so soon," Kaito cried between sobs.

"I'm going after Luchia," Rina quickly called out before speeding out of the palace doors.

"I'm going with," Masahiro stated.

"No, I need Hanon to come with me. You two have never faced Gaito before and you don't know the Ocean's layout. Stay here and look after Kaito." Rina called out.

Hanon got up from checking Kaito and gave Nagisa a quick kiss on the cheek. "Just stay here and take care if Kaito for us, find out if he knows anything about why this has happened. If you find something, use this." She handed Nagisa the mermaid pen and showed him another one before leaving to go with Rina. "Just ask Kaito how to use it, he'll know!"

And with that, Rina and Hanon both left to go track down Luchia and Gaito.

* * *

Once Kaito had calmed down, Nagisa and Masahiro sat on the floor. Nagisa lying flat-out and Masahiro sitting on his tail like he was sitting on his knees.

"Kaito, why did that just happen? Last time we saw Gaito, he was all happy and smiley but now he's just kidnapped Luchia, what's going on?" Nagisa asked.

"I had a weird dream," Kaito finally spoke, now sitting on the floor too with his arms wrapped around his tail, head hung down.

"A weird dream?" Masahiro asked.

"I was outside Gaito's old castle and when I went inside, he was there, except he was a merman and there were two copies of Luchia chained to a wall. He told me that soon, someone, no idea who, would be possessed to take Luchia away and create a clone of her. It's an old trial for turning clan members into permanent merpeople. I have to work out which Luchia is the real one. If I guess correct, I become a permanent merman and follow all the same rules you two do. If I guess wrong, the real Luchia, dies."

Nagisa and Masahiro gasped at the news in horror. "Dies?"

"I'm scared, I'll know she'll be fine, but I'm scared that I'll guess wrong." Kaito said, tears almost re-forming.

"Isn't there some sort of way to find out?" Masahiro chipped.

"There is, Gaito said there was one little inside difference that would tell which one is the real Luchia and which is fake. It won't be easy though. I'll be living with two Luchia's, trying to work out which ones which. Both will probably fight over each other. You've seen these things where someone can't choose between two things, it's a hard struggle."

"But, Luchia will come back fine right?" Nagisa asked.

"She'll be fine," Kaito replied now seeming a little better.

"That reminds me, Hanon gave me this pen, you know anything? Hanon said you would know what to do."

Kaito looked at the pen before it seeing dark blue sparks shooting out the top.

He remembered everything about it.

"Did Hanon have one with her?" He asked.

"Yeah."

"Good. It can be used to write messages with and send them out to the rest of the ocean and to another pen. We can use it to tell Rina and Hanon what I know about the current situation. It should help them."

Nagisa handed Kaito the pen as if to say 'you know what you're doing here.'

Kaito took hold of the pen, the end of it now glowing red instead.

He held down the pen end and wrote out a special message, it appearing in sparks as he wrote. When he finished writing, he let go of the end of the pen and gave it a flick motion out of the palace door, the red sparks shooting out in a straight line.

"Now what?" Masahiro asked.

"We wait for them to come back, but we should probably go tell Yukairi and everyone else about what's going on." Kaito suggested.

All 3 of them stood up and swam off to tell everyone in the palace.

* * *

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, well maybe 30 or 35 I don't know.

Hanon had the pen held tightly in her grasp when she felt a shock go through it. She looked at it to see the end of it was glowing red.

"A message?" She said, clicking the end of it and giving it a flick in front of her, after telling Rina to stop.

The message appearing, Rina reading it out.

"Dear Rina and Hanon,

I'm all fine now thanks to Masahiro and Nagisa. I should probably explain to you what I said to them.

Last night, I had a weird dream. I was outside Gaito's old castle and when I went inside, he was there, except he was a merman and there were two copies of Luchia chained to a wall. He told me that soon, someone, no idea who, would be possessed to take Luchia away and create a clone of her. It's an old trial for turning clan members into permanent merpeople. I have to work out which Luchia is the real one. If I guess correct, I become a permanent merman and follow all the same rules you all do. If I guess wrong, the real Luchia, dies. I know she'll come back fine but just follow Gaito for now and bring her back safe. Gaito will be let out of his evil state and return to normal. I don't want you to stop it, let it happen, this is a trial I need to overcome for Luchia's sake. This way, I can truly be with her forever.

Good luck finding them, Kaito."

Taking in the contents of the message, Rina said "we'd better go track them down then and bring them back safe."

"Let's go then," Hanon replied both shooting off. Hanon would send a message back once they had Luchia and Gaito was evil free once again.

After what seemed like an eternity of swimming around aimlessly, they finally found the place they were looking for.

Below them was an old burial site used for burying the dead of the North Pacific ocean, humans and mermaid. They could see Gaito standing by a massive cauldron which was resting on a pentagram symbol. Above the cauldron was Luchia being chained by the darkness at her arms and tail, a black choker now hanging around her neck with a red mark on it. Her eyes drained of all colour, now pure black.

"Luchia!" they both screamed swimming forward to her, both abruptly stopped by magic chains casting themselves around theirs tails and arms, yanking them back into an upright position like Luchia, arms above head in a cross.

Gaito turned around to look at them, something not right with his eyes. Instead of the pure blood red eyes they saw before, a huge silver glow was trying to make its way around his eyes. He stood completely still though otherwise.

"Hanon, Rina!" A voice shouted in their minds.

"Is that?" Hanon began to say,

Rina finishing, "Gaito?"

"Yes it's me. Listen, you can't interrupt what's about to happen. Kaito told you he wanted it to happen didn't he? He wants to prove he can find the real Luchia. I've told her everything that's about to happen and she's not too happy about it but for Kaito's sake, she's let it happen. Give them both a chance. There is one more thing though... once this is all over and I'm let free again, my eyes will become pure silver and my voice will fade. Until Kaito works out which one it is, I will be blinded and unable to speak as I know which Luchia is the real one. I'll try placing a tag on her part way through the spell so you know which Luchia's the real one. I don't want my brother to suffer like the way I did. Please help- aggggggggggggggh!"

That was the last thing they heard Gaito say before the voice disappeared and he turned back around to complete the spell.

Chanting an ancient language, Luchia was slowly lowered into the cauldron. Black smoke rose from the cauldron, preventing Hanon and Rina from seeing which Luchia was the real one. The ancient pentagram glowed bright pink and blinded Gaito's eyes silver. He took the opportunity to take control quickly and place a Panthalassa mark on the real Luchia's neck, a red one. Once it was over, the two new Luchia's were placed on the sea bed, eyes closed as if they were sleeping. Rina and Hanon were let free of their bonds and Gaito's eyes glowed with bright silver before he closed them and fainted to the floor as well as a dark shadow rising out of his body and breaking off into the air, well, water.

"I'll check on Luchia, you check on Gaito," Rina stated before swimming over to Luchia.

Hanon swam over to Gaito, desperately trying to wake him up.

"Luchia, Luchia?" Rina said as she shook the shoulders of both Luchia's.

Both of them came to consciousness, waking up, looking at one another.

"Huh, so this is the copy of me," they both said at the same time, "Hey, don't copy what I say, why you little-" Both broke out into a fight with each other speaking at the same time.

Rina had just about had enough. "Both of you, just shut up. Good question, which one's the real Luchia?"

"I'm the real Luchia, you don't recognise me Rina?" One Luchia stated.

"No, she's lying, I'm the real one, you can't see that?" The other one said in reply.

"Don't try to talk Rina out of it, I'm the real one." Luchia one said back.

"No, I am," Luchia 2 argued.

Both of them argued for a little while longer, Rina getting even more mad than before.

"That's it! Both of you will only speak when spoken to, that way, you'll stop arguing."

"What!?" So mean, Rina," both Luchia's pouted and both surprisingly agreeing.

Whilst Rina talked to both of them about trying to work out which Luchia was the real one, Hanon had finally woken Gaito up, his eyes still glowing pure silver.

"Gaito?" Hanon asked.

"Hanon, is that you?" Gaito asked back through her mind.

"Yeah it's me, you okay? Also, care to tell me how you ended up a merman?"

"Easy, I was put through the same trial Kaito is going through right now. Aqua-Regina had me go through it for a reason even I'm not sure of. Otherwise I'm fine, apart from the not being able to speak to you except through my mind and the fact that I can't see. I can tell it's you though by the colour you exude."

"The colour I exude?" Hanon asked very confused.

"As I look at you now, I see an outline of pure blue, looking into the distance I can see two of pure pink and one of pure green. I see you, Rina and the two Luchia's. I can make out which one has the mark on them but it's not really that clear to me which one does and doesn't. It's like a really bad blur of red. Even so, tell Rina we need to get back to the palace. I know where I'm going, the palace has a faint outline and I can follow your colours."

"That's fine then, once we get back to the palace, you can tell us which Luchia's the real one." Hanon said as she left Gaito to go fetch Rina and the two Luchia's.

After getting all of them together and getting the two Luchia's to shut up, Hanon wrote out a message with the pen in bright blue aquamarine sparks before sending them off with a flick towards the palace.

* * *

Back at the palace, all of the Palace's mermaids, Kaito, Nagisa, Masahiro, Yukairi, Nikora and Hippo were waiting for a message from the pen. Kaito was standing in the middle with Masahiro and Nagisa by his sides.

After much long silence, Kaito felt a shock through his hand, the pen.

Looking at it, bright aquamarine sparks had appear in the pen. Giving them a flick in front of him, a message appeared, many of the mermaids gasping as they had never seen the pen work before.

Nagisa gave it a quick scan before saying, "It's Hanon's message."

He even read it out for everyone.

"To everyone at the Palace.

Luchia is now in our custody along with the Fake Luchia and Gaito has been freed of his control by the darkness once more. Even though we can't tell which Luchia is which, Gaito placed a tag on the back of the real Luchia's neck. The problem being... the forfeit of being the spell caster is blindness and voice lost until the fake or the real is killed. We have a solution though. Gaito's eyes can still see colours and he can just make out the red tag he placed on the real Luchia's neck. He speaks to us through his mind, never forget we can do that.

We need someone to go out and get an executioner from the Verenasus clan, they should be more than willing to help out. We'll be back soon,

Hanon, Rina, Luchia 1, Luchia 2 and Gaito."

"Verenasus clan?" Masahiro asked.

"There one of the 20 clans of the sea. For example, Kaito and Gaito are from the Panthalassa clan, helpers of the North Pacific Kingdom. The Verenasus clan are helpers of Rina's kingdom and since she's not here currently, I'm going to have to take you with me Masahiro." Nikora stepped forward to say.

"Why me?" he asked confused.

"You're Rina's boyfriend, the closest thing we have to someone of Rina's kingdom. They can't say no once they see you."

"Then let's go."

And with that said, Masahiro and Nikora left to go to the Verenasus clan.

* * *

About 30 mins later...

"We're back!" Rina shouted bursting through the palace doors and into the room where everyone was waiting. The two Luchia's in pursuit. Hanon then came in, Gaito by her side.

Nagisa saw her and swam up to her giving her a big hug. "Hanon, you're okay."

"Nagisa..." Hanon happily said returning the hug.

As he pulled away he turned to, "Gaito."

Gaito looked at the dark blue outline. "Nagisa, I'm not possessed any more, I just can't see or talk to you properly." He told him through his mind.

"Huh, where are Masahiro and Nikora?" Rina asked looking around for them.

"They went off to get an executioner. Since you were still gone, Nikora took Masahiro with her as the closest thing to a member or the South Atlantic Ocean, he's your boyfriend after all." Yukairi said in reply.

"That's fine then," Rina began before something clicked in her mind. "Yukairi, I want you to perform the 'followers of truth' spell on the two Luchia's. That way, they will obey us without word of warning. You're Meru's sister after all, you should be trained in the light arts if I'm not mistaken.'

* * *

"So, how you finding it down here?" Nikora asked as the two of them swam off to find the clan.

"I'll be honest, I'm really enjoying it and loving it, but at the same time, I'm still in awe. I never thought mermaids actually existed, never alone thought the fact that my girlfriend was one and that I'm now a merman. I'm just happy to be a part of it."

"Glad you're enjoying it." Nikora replied happily.

After a while, they finally reached their destination, a big rock. Not just a giant rock, a massive rock.

Masahiro stared in awe at it. "Is this really where the Verenasus clan live?"

"Yep, they found this rock back in the old days and carved it out for a home for their members."

Nikora then placed her hand on the rock that looked like the entrance, it now glowing a strange green. You see, technology had advanced as well under the sea. They too have scanning systems. If someone of Verenasus blood were to scan their hand on it, it would open freely. But it someone not of blood did, a screen would come up with the main clan member. And it did...

"Nikora-san? What brings you out here?" The head clan member asked.

"Long time no see, Jounetsu." Nikora replied.

Jounetsu is the head clan member of the Verenasus clan. He has viridian green eyes that glow grass green around the sided, stating he's a clan member. Flat viridian green hair framed his face, some of it falling slightly over his right eye, the rest of it falling to just above his shoulders.

"You don't just come out here for no reason, what do you need from us?" Jounetsu asked.

"An execution," Nikora firmly stated.

Jounetsu whistled at these words. "You know I can't do that without someone from Rina's clan as permission for executions, you got someone with you?"

"I do," she replied pushing Masahiro in front of her.

"Who's this. I've never seen him around here before, let alone the fact he's a merman," Jounetsu asked suspiciously.

"I'm Masahiro. Rina's boyfriend. Truth be told, I've only been a merman for two days, Rina turned me into one after revealing herself to me. We're down here because Luchia's getting married to Kaito of the Panthalassa clan." Masahiro said very shyly, holding his hands together in front of himself.

"Luchia's getting married? Give her my best wishes when you see her. So, you were once a human huh, congratulations and welcome to the merworld I guess. Also, since you're Princess Rina's boyfriend, I see no reason not to give you an execution, who's it for?"

"I'll explain it," Nikora said, taking her place in front of Masahiro. "Kaito's been put through the merman trial as a clan member and there are currently two copied of Luchia. Thanks to some magic, we know which Luchia's the real one and which one the copy/ fake. We need an executioner to kill the other one."

"Kaito's been put through the trial. It's a gift to be put through that trial and torture. I should know, I've taken it myself, had to execute my fake girlfriend over it but it was still really hard. I'll send for my best man to come do the execution. I think you might know him, Masahiro." That was all Jounetsu said before taking off to go get his best man, a tail the same colour as his eyes following.

"He really did go through it," Masahiro said in awe.

Back in the cave, Jounetsu had found his best man.

"Hey, Yamu-kun. Got an execution order for ya, it's from Nikora of Luchia's kingdom. Someone's gone through the merman trial and we need you to execute the fake Luchia. Also there's someone from Rina's kingdom here, someone from the surface world."

Yamu-kun was truly amazed by these words. "Someone of Rina's Kingdom and the surface world?"

"Yep, even so, execution order, from me!"

Yamu-kun swam up to the outside of the rock, not worried about the execution but as to who this person was.

Back outside, Masahiro and Nikora patiently waited for the person to appear.

The rock door moved open and the figure standing there swam out of the darkness.

Both Masahiro and the figure gasped as they worked out who each other were.

"Masahiro?" Yamu-kun asked in shock.

"Yamuro-kun!?" Masahiro asked in even bigger shock.

* * *

**Everyone Dun dun dun!**

**Yamuro: I finally have a purpose in this story, other than being some random dude from Luchia's class in chapter 3.**

**Nexus: Yep, it's time you deserved some screen time.**

**Also for those who are wondering what's going to happen once the fake or real Luchia dies, The story will still continue up until the wedding has taken place and one year has passed. More action will take place and a new danger arises. My OC who is named... Hayate will be playing bad man of part 1 of this story series.**

**Nothing much else to say here other than I have no excuse for not uploading for over a month except for moving house and doing eff loads of college work. Next chapter coming soon so please bare with... bare with... bare with**

**Everyone but moi: See you all for chapter 8. Also please re-check the first chapter, chapter 4 and chapter 6 as Nexus added a little bit of more detail in there.**


	8. Chapter 8: Execution

**Nexus: T_T sorry for this being late again, I really need to stop saying it will be up the next day because I can never pull myself to do it. **

**Also, guys... no new reviews, I know I made you wait a month but the least you could do is review the chapter. I told you all I work faster with reviews so blame yourselves for this!**

**Luchia: Awww come one, give them a break. You did make them wait a month-**

**Nexus- That's because I was doing eff loads of college work and decorating my new house. I do have a life outside of !**

**Luchia: Calm down. Oh yeah, Nexus doesn't own Mermaid Melody and if she did, she wouldn't have tortured me for a whole season, around 29 episodes by count, taking away the ones I wasn't tortured.**

**Hanon: But she does own Yamuro-kun who is now just Yamu-kun which is his actual name, Yamuro is his human name to deceive you all, she also owns Yukairi, Meru's other 5 sisters, Jounetsu, Hayate and any other future OC's and clans to be named.**

**Nexus: I would have thrown a book at you just then if I had any, there all in a taped up box somewhere. So yes, Meru has 5 other sisters as well as Yukairi, they hold quite a vital part of the story now, thanks to MermaidPrincessLilian for giving me the idea during a big PM chat we had together over 3 days.**

**Also decided to update this one early because I love you all so much!**

**On to chapter 8 and beyond!**

* * *

Chapter 8: The execution of the real or the fake? Nobody knowns! Gaito's spell failed?!

**Last time -**

**"Masahiro?" Yamu-kun asked in shock.**

**"Yamuro-kun?!" Masahiro asked in even bigger shock.**

"What are you- I thought you were human- but you're a merman- what's going on here?" Both of them asked each other at the same time.

"Hang on, you two know each other?" Nikora asked very confused.

"Yeah, this guys Yamuro-kun-"

"-Um, my names actually Meguro Yamu, I'm only known as Yamuro in the human world, sorry," Yamu said cutting in.

"So, names Yamu, he's in Luchia, Hanon and Rina's class. Mysterious guy though. When we had a break or some weeks off, no-one ever saw him around at all. We saw him at the beach once last year but when we looked again, he'd gone. No trace no nothing. Now I guess I know why we never saw you, you're a member of this clan aren't you?" The conversation started towards Nikora but soon, he changed to asking Yamu questions.

"Yeah," Yamu said shyly, "I've been a clan member since birth but I was born a merman for some strange reason. A few of us where. But you, you certainly weren't born one. You've been near water loads and nothing. Why now? You been through the trial?"

"No, Luchia's getting married so Kaito, her, Kaito, Hanon, Nagisa and Rina have all come down here. Kaito's a clan member so he's fine. But Rina and Hanon opened up to me and Nagisa and turned us into mermen thanks to a ritual spell. They'll be quite shocked to see you," Masahiro replied.

"I know they will, so, the execution orders, kill the fake Luchia?" Yamu was checking to make sure it was right.

Nikora stepped in to talk about it. "That's right. Kaito was put through the trial and thanks to magic we know which Luchia is fake. We need an executioner to kill the fake so we called upon your clan and here you are."

"Seems like fairly easy orders. Let's go then. We'll talk more about you and the others on the way if you don't mind. You've got a lot to tell me and I do as well." Yamu kun said before he, Masahiro and Nikora began to swim back to Luchia's kingdom.

Just for reference, Meguro Yamu, just call him Yamu and Yamuro when he's human. He was born into the Verenasus clan a merman. Supposedly because he is the one of the nine chosen in every clan who serve a higher purpose to the merworld than the others do. He has short black hair falling below his chin line and just above his shoulders with bright green highlight running throughout. His eyes are the strangest though. Most members of the Verenasus clan have green eyes, Yamu has blue eyes with a dark green glow around the edge, reverse light and different colours. He has a half decent build, little bit of ab showing but not that much but then again, doesn't look feminine. His tail was a multitude of green colours ranging from near black to bright green like in his hair and some blue like his main eye colour. Around his waist is a black belt bearing the Verenasus clan symbol. It's sort of a round planet with rings connected to X shape pieces around the edges of it. (A/N: I'll draw it someday and post a link for you.)

* * *

Back at the palace and 40 mins later, the arrival of Nikora, Masahiro and Yamu approaching.

"Got everything for the spell Yukairi?" Rina asked.

Yukairi quickly scanned over the book and looked up giving Rina a nod.

For the confused, in the last chapter we briefly mentioned the Light Arts, a special magic possessed by 7 girls, one from each kingdom, all being sisters. Yukairi is one of them, belonging to the North Pacific whilst one of her sisters, Meru, belongs to the North Atlantic. The Light Arts are usually used for specialist spells like enhancement and status and orders. The one they're about to perform is the spell 'followers of truth', a spell that makes the inflicted follow the orders of the caster or a person selected by said caster.

"No offence here, but em, maybe I should be the truth. It's not that I don't trust you or anything. I just know how dangerous and easy it is for the truth to say something that the afflicted will take very seriously. You do come out with some strange things some times," Rina asked.

Yukairi just gave her a look before saying, "fine," annoyed and kinda hurt.

As Yukairi prepared herself, her body began glowing white and her tail and hair both changed to white before the light died out. This is how a light spell is performed. As she raised her hands into the air a ball of white light with glowing white sparks around it appeared. Yukairi began chanting in a strange language, the ritual language used for any and all spells or magic items and the ball split into three. Two white balls and one black one. She stopped chanting and shot the two white balls towards the two Luchia's and the black one towards Rina. Once the orbs had been absorbed into their bodies, Yukairi's white tail and hair faded giving her her old colours back and leaving her feeling rather dizzy.

She began falling backwards until she was caught by someone.

"Nikora-san?" Yukairi asked.

"Yeah it's me, we're back early." She replied.

Rina looked around spotting Masahiro, and began swimming up to him launching into a hug.

"Masahiro, you're back," Rina said relieved.

"I'm fine, don't worry." He replied gratefully receiving and returning the hug.

"You did bring back an executioner right?" she asked after looking around and seeing no-one.

Masahiro smiled, "we did, he's just a little shy about seeing some of you. Luchia, Kaito, Hanon, Nagisa, and yourself, might be a little shocked about who it is..."

"It's someone we all know?" Hanon asked, intruiged and confused at the same time.

"Yep," he said before shouting, "Yamu, you can come out now!"

Behind one of the pillars, Yamu swam out of hiding, a gasp coming from the room.

"Yamuro-kun!?" Rina, Hanon, Nagisa, Kaito and the two Luchia's, responding to Rina's words through their minds, shouted.

Yamu blushed a little before saying, "hi?"

"What the hell's going on here?" Nagisa managed to say.

"Yamuro's a merman?" Hanon said as well.

"I don't believe it," Kaito muttered under his breath in pure confusion.

"Um, guys, my name isn't actually Yamuro, it's just Yamu, Meguro Yamu, Yamuro was a human cover name given to me." He said rather annoyed.

"I don't think that really matters right now, what matters right now is that you have some explaining to do us!" Rina burst out.

"Simple, I was born into the Verenasus clan but chose to spend most of my life ashore. Whilst on shore, I was looking out for you Rina, I knew you'd eventually venture into the human world. You'd never met me before so it was easy to keep a cover. I also spent some time doing my job, assassinating those under execution orders who'd escaped to the surface. Then during the summer time or breaks, I'd return to the sea to report my duties. That's why I'm known as the top assassinator of the group now. Now, are we going to stand around here gawking all day at me or are we going to get onto this execution?" he asked his last question very sternly.

"Yeah, let's just get Gaito to affirm which one it is," Rina said. Through her mind as a caster, she said 'Luchia 1 and 2, turn to Gaito, then turn around so he can see your necks.'

The two Luchia's followed the orders under the spell and set themselves so Gaito could confirm which was the real and which was the fake.

Gaito looked at the two outlines of colour before noticing something was wrong. He gasped in annoyance.

"What's wrong Gaito?" Kaito asked kind of concerned.

"The spell tag," he began to say with a shaky breath, "It's gone, it didn't last long enough."

The whole room broke out into gasps.

"You're kidding me!" Hanon shouted in annoyance. "So now we have no idea which Luchia's the real one?"

"I did say there would be one inside difference that will allow us to work out which Luchia's which." Gaito said, trying to find the upside.

"There are numerous things which can tell us which Luchia's which, finding it out will be the hard bit..." Yamu replied.

"Great, just great," Rina sighed as she placed a hand on Luchia 1's shoulder.

"OW!" The two Luchia's and Rina screamed. Rina has caused an electric shock. (A/N: My story. If in kingdom hearts 1 you could summon fire and thunder underwater then you can get electric shocks in my fanfic!)

Something hit Nagisa like a lightning bolt. "Wait, why did both Luchia's scream, only one Luchia was touched."

It suddenly hit Rina too, "that's right! Wonder if I can cause a shock on the other one."

Rina placed her hand on Luchia 2 like she did Luchia 1 and got a similar result. But this time, only the touched Luchia felt the pain of the shock and Rina too.

"That's weird. We touched 1 Luchia and the shock hit the other one too. We touched the other one and only the touched got shock. That's really weird," Nagisa pointed out.

Yamuro sighed before breaking the news. "You guys are so lucky!"

"Why's that?" Nagisa asked.

"When the ritual spell of creating the two Luchia's was first done, a small change was made one Luchia. I've seen ones in the past where it's a change of heart, change of beliefs but I've only ever seen the pain status once and it's a rare status." Yamu replied.

"The pain status?"

"It's a status I've seen happen to my friend and head of my clan, Jounetsu. His girlfriend was copied and the pain status was inflicted. When the real person takes pain, the fake reacts to the pain and shared it. But when the fake takes pain, only the fake feels it and the real remains unharmed. It's such a rare status because it makes it so easy for a person to find out which person's the real and which persons' the fake. You've got someone watching over you Kaito, you've just gotten very lucky."

"So let me get this straight... the Luchia who we first touched is real and the fake one is the one we touched second?" Kaito asked for checking.

"Yep, and on that note, can we release the first Luchia of the spell, whoever cast it, please?" Yamu asked looking around.

"Can do!" Yukairi replied very cheerfully. She held her hands together towards her face and chanted the ritual language again. A ball of white light existed the real Luchia's body and was absorbed back into Yukairi's body.

The freed Luchia shook her head before looking around, saying, "what am I doing back at the palace? Could have swarn-"

She was interrupted being tackled by Kaito who was saying with a low sad tone, "Luchia, you're okay, you're back to normal now."

"Huh, Kaito, what happened to me?" she asked confused before looking to her left. "Why is there another me here!?"

"Let me explain it all..." Nikora said stepping in for a long speech.

After she'd explained everything that happened, Luchia asked, "so you're going to be killing the fake me yes and then Kaito will become a permanent merman?"

"That's right," Kaito replied softly.

"Kaito, you sure you're okay with this? Becoming one of us?"

"Luchia, if we don't execute the fake you, we're going to have an issue here aren't we? Also, you know I'd do anything for you, becoming a full merman is something I want to do, not just for you, but for me too."

"THEN DOWN WITH THE FAKE!" Luchia screamed almost too happy about everything now.

* * *

"Ready Yamu?" Rina asked from where she was standing.

Yamu simply nodded before preparing himself. Holding out his right hand to the side, a massive dark green scythe apppeared, the tip of it glowing purple with poison. Looking around the room, the three couples were all standing near each other on one side of the room with Nikora, Hippo, Gaito and Yukairi. The rest of the room was scattered with all the other mermaids of the castle and Taki-san had come out as well to see the execution. The fake Luchia was sitting on her tail in the middle of the room, her arms bound with rope behind her back, her eyes still black from the spell that was cast on her.

Yamuro lifted his scythe up into the air before giving it an almighty swing at Luchia's head. As it struck, her body began glowing bright white and a multitude of lights appeared.

First off, the light from the fake Luchia's and Rina's bodies came out and re-absorbed themselves back into Yukairi's body, her body briefly glowing.

Gaito's body began glowing pure black and then faded, his voice returning and his eyes true colour returning.

The real Luchia's body glowed with warm bright light whilst Kaito's body became enveloped in a red light that eventually burst out until no-one could see what was happenening.

The whole room was filled with a warm red glow in which only Kaito could see in. He looked around a second before seeing the same bright red glowing magic from the first time this happened.

"Oh great," he muttered under his breath before the swirls of magic circled his body once more before clinging onto to him causing him great pain. He cried out once more, screaming from the top of his lungs and the magic worked its way around his body. He could feel his tail splitting apart and regaining his old legs back, as well as his breathing suddenly cut off, causing him to pass out from the pain.

From the outside you could now see Kaito's body outlined, his tail splitting into his legs. When the light died off, it dispirited quickly leaving a human unconscious Kaito to sink to the floor. His plain white t-shirt, open red short sleeved jacket, black jeans and red converse had returned to him.

"Kaito!" Luchia screamed as she caught him before he fell down any more she sat down on the floor, cradling his head and upper body in his lap like she'd done before, the tears beginning to fall from her face.

"KAITO!"

* * *

**Nexus: Betchya didn't see that coming did ya, eh eh?**

**A nice little evil ending. Was the fake Luchia truly executed or was the real one executed and they made a mistake. After all, Kaito has just turned back into a human and is currently lying unconscious, very close to the ocean floor...**

**Kaito: Hang on a minute, you wouldn't just kill me and Luchia, that would ruin the point of the whole fic, plus if the real was executed, wouldn't the fake fade away?**

**Nexus: I never said anything about the fake dissapearing or anything... now shut up and wait till the next chapter, you're supposed to be knocked out cold anway...**

**Rina: can do. *knocks Kaito unconscious.***

**Nexus: o_O you didn't actually have to do that Rina... and I'll see you all for chapter 9 real soon.**


	9. Chapter 9: Survival and Arrival

**Nexus: I'ma back! And quickly as well, finally settled down in my new house and my brain is a flowing with creativity for the next chapter. Sorry to say this story might end a little shorter than expected, but at least over 15 decent chapters for this one.**

**Luchia/Hanon: Nexus doesn't own Mermaid Melody, she would have made a season 3 if so. But she does own all her OC's including a new additional OC, another class mate! And she owns her idea for the story since chapter 6!**

**Nexus: Thank you guys. I really have nothing to say here except I now fully welcome Yamu, Hayate and... Shaga to the corner!**

**Yamu: thank you.**

**Hayate: Finally, this means I'm making an appearance!**

**Shaga: where did I suddenly come from?**

**Nexus: Details later, ON TO CHAPTER 9**

* * *

Chapter 9: Kaito's survival and Hayate's arrival.

**Last time- ****When the light died off, it dispirited quickly leaving a human unconscious Kaito to sink to the floor. His plain white t-shirt, open red short sleeved jacket, black jeans and red converse had returned to him.**

**"Kaito!" Luchia screamed as she caught him before he fell down any more she sat down on the floor, cradling his head and upper body in his lap like she'd done before, the tears beginning to fall from her face.**

**"KAITO!"**

Everyone stood there confused as to why Kaito had turned back to a human. The fake Luchia in the centre of the room was still there, body glowing white but you could only see her face.

The fake smiled saying, "congratulations," as her body faded away and the light travelled into Kaito's body, causing a strange reaction in Luchia's arms.

Kaito slowly opened his eyes, his breath low and panting. His eyes were glowing bright white. "Hurry, get Kaito to the surface," the voice shaky.

"Kaito?" Luchia asked confused as Kaito was alive but it wasn't his voice. It was a mixture of his voice and Aqua-Regina's voice.

"Luchia, get him to the surface, he'll survive then!" the voice shouted before Kaito closed his eyes and a timer appeared above his head showing 2:00.

It began counting down.

"Luchia! Follow Aqua-Regina sama's words. The timer is the amount of time Kaito has left before he's failed. You need to get him to the surface for him to survive." Yamu explained.

It took Luchia a couple of seconds for her brain to respond from the shock but when she recovered, she took off like a rocket, Kaito in hand, heading straight for the surface.

As she swam upwards, the timer was counting down faster than before and she could see the surface in sight.

'Only 10 seconds,' she thought as she picked up the speed. 'Please say no-one's around.'

With about 2 seconds left, she shot up from the surface and jumped high into the air, looking around hoping no-one had seen her before landing safely back into the water and swimming over to a rock that she and Kaito shared together.

* * *

Shaga was just taking a mere harmless midnight stroll on the beach. No-one was ever around at this time and he needed some space to think over his life.

Ameru Shaga, another person who belonged to Luchia's class. He'd transferred to the school only 2 months before the end of the year and was a rather quiet person who didn't talk much. He was about as tall as Kaito, had long hair tied in a loose ponytail that fell down to just around his knees, his hair colour being a dark, warm, chocolate brown colour. He had eyes the same colour. His skin was nicely tanned as if he'd been on a constant holiday in the sun. He was currently wearing a slightly oversized grey hoodie, baggy black trousers and nothing on his feet. On his face though was a scar that ran over his left eye going diagonally down towards the right side of his lip. No-one knew how he'd done it and no-one ever asked.

He walked around for a while before finding his favourite spot on the beach. Sitting on top of a rock near the ocean waves where the cooling breeze would run over his face.

He stared up at the moon thinking, 'it's so peaceful tonight.'

Sadly, that peace was broken.

"What the," Shaga muttered under his breath as he could hear something slowly approaching from the waves below. Upon instinct, he jumped off his rock and hid behind it so he couldn't be seen but could watch what was going on.

* * *

Luchia took flight into the air looking around and luckily seeing no-one. But someone was watching her.

'A mermaid?!' Shaga thought in confusion, shock and amazement but that wasn't the only thing that shocked him. He looked into the mermaids hands and saw, 'Kaito?'

Shaga very carefully followed them around until he saw them sitting up on the rock that was in the middle of the sea. He'd manage to find another rock to hide behind in which he could hear...

"Kaito, Kaito, please wake up, Kaito!" Luchia cried shaking Kaito every now and then hoping he would open his eyes soon.

"Wait, I recognise that voice..." Shaga muttered below his breath, his mind racing to find the right name to the owner of the voice.

Kaito slowly but steadily arose from his state of unconsciousness.

"Kaito..." Luchia said in disbelief. Kaito was still alive.

"Luchia?" Kaito asked rather confused.

"That's Luchia?" Shaga said surprised trying not to make too much noise. Luchia was a mermaid and Kaito knew about this. That explained why Luchia had left school and wasn't coming back. But... Kaito? That was another matter, not forgetting Hanon and Rina.

"Luchia, where am I? Last time I checked, I was in your palace and we'd just executed the fake Luchia?" Kaito asked.

"Palace? Luchia owns a palace in the ocean?" Shaga asked himself, only getting more and more lost following their conversation.

"It's okay, we executed the fake but what matters is you're alive! As to whether the spell worked or not, that's another matter..." Luchia said trailing the last words in thought.

"Spell?" Shaga asked himself again. Before he could think of anything else, a ball of glowing white appeared from the sky and Aqua-Regina sama came down towards Kaito and Luchia, floating just above the water.

"Aqua-Regina sama?" Both Luchia and Kaito asked.

"Congratulations, Kaito..." was all she said before she held a hand out raising Kaito into the air.

As Kaito was raised into the air, his body began glowing red again, shining so bright that Luchia and Shaga had to shield their eyes from the light.

Kaito was back in that world of red once more. 'Please no more of that painful magic,' he thought.

He was lucky though. A ring of warming light appeared above his head and slowly made it's way down his body. His clothes began to disappear, his eyes closed themselves in comfort and all his characteristic traits of him when he was a merman returned. But there were some changes.

The black line around his waist where the Panthalassa symbol lied was a more shiny black colour and had some gold glistening in it.

A little tattoo of a pair of wings appeared on the back of his neck, but in real time, you wouldn't be able to notice it unless his hair was pushed out the way.

He also gained a little more muscle making him look only that much cuter, he looked amazing.

Once the light faded, the world of red slowly faded away from around Kaito. Kaito's body was still glowing bright red so that you couldn't see anything as Aqua-Regina sama lowered him back into the water.

Once the light all died off, Kaito slowly opened his eyes, a strange feeling returning to him, his tail.

He looked down at himself and smiled, almost too happy for this form to be back. He looked up at Aqua-Regina sama saying, "thank you!"

"You don't have to thank me Kaito, you've earned it. Now, don't forget the rules once you return ok? I'll see you both some other time." she said before fading off again.

"What on earth, what did Kaito earn?" Shaga muttered to himself again, getting an answer straight away.

Kaito jumped up into the air in happiness, showing Luchia his new self and leaving a hidden Shaga even more breathless.

"What the, Kaito just got turned... into a," Shaga couldn't bring himself to say the word, "merman."

Kaito gave Luchia a quick look in the eyes sending a little message to her.

As if she understood, both of them shot off underwater to head back to the palace.

Shaga was about to follow them to see if he could figure out where they were heading, before a voice speaking out stopped him in his tracks.

"I wouldn't try and follow them if I were you, Shaga!" The voice called out

Shaga looked around before finding the source of the voice.

Up in a nearby tree hanging over the Ocean was a man sitting with one leg close to him and one leg dangling over the edge. He was an older man around the age of 34-35 maybe. He had long light silver hair falling to just above his butt region and it fell across his face in jagged fringing like Yukairi does. One of his eyes was golden, the other had two scars forming an X across it and the pupil was pure black. He was wearing a loose black robe, short black trousers falling to just above his knees and nothing on his feet. His skin was the same shade as Shaga's. Around his neck was a pendant of the Serebu clan's logo, a black open heart with ivy and barbed wire growing all around it.

The Serebu clan used to serve Karen's kingdom until a war supposedly wiped their clan out even though 10% of the clan survived. A new clan then served Karen's kingdom, the Batsumo clan who aren't important right now. The Serebu clan now wander round the seas in search of a new home and revenge on the clans who wiped them out in war. The Panthalassa, Octavious, Verenasus and Batsumo clans.

"Who are you?" Shaga first asked, "and how do you know my name?"

"Patience Shaga, all your questions will be answered soon," the man said, hopping down from the branch and sliding down the tree, jumping off at the last minute landing in front of Shaga.

"I'll ask again, who are you?" Shaga's patience was running low and you could tell by the low tones in his voice.

"Boy you just can't wait a bit can you?" The man said very annoyed. "Name's Hayate, Serebu Hayate."

"Hayate," Shaga said remembering the name. "How do you know my name? What just happened? Mermaids really exist? What just happened to Kaito?"

Various questions kept on rolling out of Shaga's mouth before Hayate had had it. "Just shut up would ya! I told you, all your questions will be answered soon! One at a time, kid."

"My name's Shaga, not kid. Now, how do you know my name?" Shaga wasn't going to wait around for an answer.

"You really don't remember anything do you?" Hayate said annoyed. "See you still got the scar."

Shaga gasped. "You know about the scar?"

"Like I said, you don't remember anything, anything at all..." Hayate trailed off at the end.

"What am I suppose to remember?" Shaga asked.

"Your clan perhaps, your old man, your scar?" Hayate streamed off.

"First off, what clan? Second, I don't have parents, they died when I was young on a cruise ship, I survived and woke up in hospital all one. Third, what do you know about this scar?"

Hayate sighed. "You're asking too many questions for me to answer here, looks like I'm just going to have to take you back," he said as he grabbed Shaga's arm and began dragging him towards the ocean.

"Hey, let go of me!" Shaga screamed. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't even get rid of Hayate's grip. He looked forward towards where Hayate was dragging him. "Are you mad!? We can't breathe in the ocean!"

"Just hold your breath then kid," Hayate said before using the hand that gripped Shaga's arm to toss him into the air and into the Ocean.

"AHHHH!" Shaga screamed before he hit the cold water. He slowly opened his eyes to see Hayate swimming towards him but he'd changed a little.

His hair had become even more longer falling to around his knees like Shaga's does. He has another smaller scar that also crosses over his left eye but in the other direction. His left eye had also become the same gold colour that his right eye was. His robe was floating around more and a purple ripped and torn baggy shoulder strapped top had appeared. (A/N: you know, the ones with thick shoulder straps, can't get the right word for them right now!). On his feet were also a little pair of wings on both sides of them.

"Come on kid, I'm taking you home," Hayate said much to Shaga's surprise. Shaga was so shocked by this, that he lost the last of his breathe and fell into consciousness. (A/N: seems falling into consciousness in normal now around here...)

* * *

Back at Luchia's Palace...

"Where are those two?" Hanon asked getting worried now about where they were.

"Lets hope she didn't fail," Nagisa said in a low tone.

"I know Luchia and she wouldn't have failed, as to where she is-" Rina began to say before being cut of.

"We're back!" Luchia and Kaito said in sing song voice as they entered the room where Hanon, Rina, Masahiro, Nagisa, Yukairi, Hippo, Yamu and Nikora.

"Kaito," the whole room said happily about seeing that he was alive and back to being a merman.

The girls and Hippo all swam up to Luchia to talk to her whilst the boys split to Kaito.

"Luchia, you did it!" Hanon shouted happily.

"Congratulations!" The rest of the all said.

"Kaito, you're okay." Yamu said happily.

"What? You thought I wouldn't be okay?" Kaito asked annoyed.

"No, I had full confidence in you and Luchia. Welcome at long last to the club."

He gave Masahiro and Nagisa a manly hug, putting his hands over the shoulders and pulling them towards him. "No need to be jealous any more you two."

"What do you mean jealous?" They both asked him.

"I saw the looks you were giving me a few days ago when we first came here. You two seemed pretty annoyed that you were the only two who's lives would fully be changed after a year when we get to the return to the surface. Now we're all full mermen, no need to be jealous any more right?" Kaito asked.

Masahiro and Nagisa looked at each other, then to Kaito and then to Yamu before all four of them shared a little laugh between themselves.

Breaking from the manly hug, Masahiro asked, "what took you so long to get back here then? You've been gone for over 2 hours, surely it didn't take that long?"

"It didn't," Luchia said joining in their conversation, "we took a little detour, back to the spot where we fisrt met each other for old times sake. After all, now that the whole trial things over, we can get back to work on the wedding."

"That's right, I completely forgot that that's why we're here," Nagisa said slapping his forehead.

"But we won't be staying in this Palace forever in the year will we?" Masahiro asked.

"Bingo," Hanon said, "once the wedding's over, Nagisa will come back to the North Atlantic with me and you'll go back with Rina to the South Atlantic, where our Palace's reside. We'll still come see each other though."

"That's right," Rina chipped in, "but how about we all turn it in for the night? I'm getting kinda sleepy."

A yawn from Luchia, Kaito and Nagisa confirmed that note. They all looked at each other before saying their goodnight's and heading off to their separate quarters for the night.

Nikora put her hand on Yamu's shoulder. "Come on, let's get you a room for the night, it's a little too late to be swimming home isn't it?"

"Guess it is, thank you," Yamu said as Nikora guided him to a guest room that he would sleep in for the night.

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere on the other side ocean, truly thousands of miles away!

A drop of water fell onto Shaga's face waking him up. He instantly shot up remembering what happened and gasped as he took in his surroundings.

He was technically underwater since Hayate dragged him in but they were somewhere special He first looked down at himself and noticed he was wearing something similar to what Hayate was wearing except his trousers were longer and ended down by his ankles, he also had wings on his feet. The rest of his was all the same though, via his left eye turning gold which he couldn't tell.

Looking back up, he was actually surrounded by walls of ice. Hayate had found a giant hunk of ice that for some reason wasn't melting in the sea. He used some magic to keep it safe and carved himself a home out of it for him and the other 11 members of the clan that still survived. This was the current new home for the Serebu clan. When he looked behind him, he saw a throne made of ice with the same symbol that was on Hayate's pendant carved onto the top of it. Sitting in the chair was a grinning Hayate.

"So, you've finally woken up, took ya a while," he said in a cheery voice.

"Where the bloody hell am I?" Shaga asked very angry.

"Patience Shaga, shouting your mouth off will get you nowhere here. But welcome, to your new home." Hayate said happily

"My new home?" Shaga said confused.

"Yes, welcome to the home of the Serebu clan, my son." Hayate said spreading his arms out in welcoming.

* * *

**Nexus: So welcome, Hayate and Shaga**!

**Hayate: You made me the bad guy?**

**Shaga: You made me his son!?**

**Nexus: In Hayate's word, 'all your questions will be answered soon.' That and Hayate has that villainous look.**

**Shaga: And you made me his son?**

**Nexus: Do you wanna be in this story or not?**

**Shaga: yes I-**

**Nexus: -Then shut it!**

**Now, this will not be updated until I finish chapter 3 of If love exists, will I find it. Sorry for all who wanted the next chapter soon but in all fairness, I did only leave 2 days before I finished this chapter so this is compensation.**

**Everyone: See you all sometime for chapter 10! **

**Nexus: And cause it's chapter 10 of my first fanfic, we shall celebrate!**


	10. Chapter 10: The Serebu Clan History

**Luchia: Well well...**

**Hanon: She's finally beginning to bother with us.**

**Nexus: Oh come off it, I did care before! I just, couldn't come up with ideas fast enough for this chapter but I've finally got something.**

**And since this is chapter 10, I promised we would party. But since it's past the 21st December, we have 2 excuses to party!**

**That's right Mayan calendar, WE SURVIVED SOMETHING THAT WAS NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN!**

***high fives Nagisa***

**Nagisa: Even so, since it's chapter 10, Nexus promised we would celebrate at the end of the chapter.**

**Nexus: I did, as long as Luchia and Hanon remember to do disclaimer and claimers for me...**

**Luchia: She doesn't own us.**

**Hanon: She does own her ideas and OC's.**

**Nexus: T_T Fine, here's our freak freaky chapter 10 from outer space.**

* * *

Chapter 10: The Serebu Clan History

**-Last time-**

**"So, you've finally woken up, took ya a while," he said in a cheery voice.**

**"Where the bloody hell am I?" Shaga asked very angry.**

**"Patience Shaga, shouting your mouth off will get you nowhere here. But welcome, to your new home." Hayate said happily**

**"My new home?" Shaga said confused.**

**"Yes, welcome to the home of the Serebu clan, my son." Hayate said spreading his arms out in welcoming.**

"Son?" Shaga questioned in shock.

Hayate sighed. "This is going to take longer than I thought."

"Listen up old man! You need to tell me, right now, what the hell is going on! I wanna know where the hell I am, who the hell you are, why you're calling me your son and if you can, why mermaids exist." Shaga shouted, his patience finally wore off.

"So, you finally want to know the whole story?" Hayate asked as he clicked his fingers, a chair of ice appearing below where Shaga was sat, lifting him onto it as it formed. "I suggest you get comfortable now, because you're gonna be here for a while."

Hayate took a deep breath, getting ready to tell Shaga the whole story.

"If you want to know everything, I can only tell you what I know so far which is you, me, your parents, this place, mermaids, Luchia and Kaito, my clan and other clans plus the things that connect them all."

"Lets start with you, Ameru Shaga. Born 24th March 1995, therefore age 17, that's definitely true. Parents, your mother Ameru Luna and your father Ameru Kyushu. Well, this is where it gets interesting. You see, Ameru isn't your true last name and Luna and Kyushu aren't really your parents. The only way to explain it, is to start right from the very beginning as to how this all came together."

"Mermaids, yes, they do exist, they have done for quite some time. Back when they existed, they also had clans, made mainly of men via one or two women. You see, 40 people were created, 40 who weren't merpeople. 20 women, 20 men. The 40 of them paired together and made 20 different clans for themselves. Overtime, more and more people were born and came into clans and that's when they started being recognised. 7 of them were chosen to help the 7 mermaid kingdoms as guards, scouter's general helpers. The main 7 who originally served the seven kingdoms were the Panthalassa, Octavious Verenasus, Serebu, Makala, Janobu and Kerasus clans. 6 of those still serve today except, us, the Serebu clan. Also hencing my last name, Serebu. This place, is the current home of our clan. You see, when the Batsumo clan came into a higher power, they thought they deserved to serve the kingdom we did more than us. Sadly, the Panthalassa, Octavious and Verenasus clans all backed up the Batsumo clan and a war broke out. All together, those 4 clans had over 2000 men against 120 of us. As you can guess, it was slaughter! 10 of us survived and months later I was born making 11 people. I had an affair with a woman on land and she had you, making 12 people. She died so I brought you back. About 2 weeks after that, you disappeared. When I finally found you on shore, you'd been brought in by that Ameru family and you yourself were too young to understand that they were never your real family. 10 years later, when you were then 10 obviously, that boat crash happened. I caused it in order to try and bring you home. Sadly, a mermaid saved you, Nanami Luchia. Yes, Luchia is a mermaid, she was born a mermaid and always will be a mermaid. The only thing you remember though is that crash and then waking up in hospital all alone. As for Luchia, she saved one human 3 years before she saved you and 7 years later went to the human world to find him. She's not just any mermaid though, she's one of the 7 mermaid princesses along with Houshou Hanon, Touin Rina, Karen, Noelle, Coco and Seira. You know Hanon and Rina as they are in your class along with Luchia. Due to certain circumstances, Luchia and the others returned to the seas. As for Kaito, the human Luchia saved nearly 9 years ago, he's not exactly human. He was born prince to the Panthalassa clan along with his Twin Brother who turned evil and was eventually reported dead. He still lives, he's just not as evil. Luchia and Kaito are actually getting married from what my sources tell me. And as for Hanon and Rina's loves, Nagisa and Masahiro, they were turned into mermen where as Kaito went through a trial and that's why you saw Kaito getting turned into a merman. I spent the last 7 years re-tracking you down and this time, I'm not letting you go so easily!"

"So, you expect me to believe that I'm the son of a man who's Clan got slaughtered in battle by others and that mermaids exist and my 3 classmates and their lovers are also merpeople?" Shaga asked sarcastically.

"What, you don't believe me?" Hayate laughed slightly.

"Of course I don't!" Shaga retaliated.

Hayate sighed once more. "If words won't convince you, then hopefully, images will."

Upon the last words, Hayate clicked his fingers as a purple glow engulfed the entire room. Shaga shielded his eyes and when he opened them, he and Hayate were floating in the air above the ocean, late a night too as it was quite dark even though a crescent moon was out.

"What the-"

"I did say if words didn't convince you, then these next few scenes should. Just watch." Hayate turned his head back over the Ocean to a familiar person, to him at least.

Below them was indeed the Ocean. Upon the rock where Luchia and Kaito usually sat, was a 17 year old woman. She had long free flowing black hair, olive coloured skin and was wearing a white thin strapped free flowing dress ending just below her knees. She had amethyst eyes than shone brightly in the darkness and smooth looking pale pink lips.

She was sat there with her feet dipped in the water, looking out over the water as if she was waiting for someone and she was.

A minute later an 18 year old man with long silver hair popped out over the Ocean. It was a young version of Hayate. He still looked all the same as he did today except he wasn't wearing anything. As he swam over to the rock, he pushed himself up to reveal a long slender purple and silver tail.

Shaga just turned to Hayate, who in response laughed slightly and said, "I'll tell you that story later."

When Hayate pulled himself up, he launched into a hug with the girl.

"I'm so glad you came to see me Hayate," the girl said.

"I wouldn't not come see you Sharuu, what's wrong? You said in your message you had something life changing to tell me."

Sharuu looked sad for a minute before breaking the news to her boyfriend. "I'm pregnant!"

Hayate sat there with a look of wonder on his face. "You're... pregnant?"

"Yes, with your child. I've been pregnant for just over a month now." Sharuu looked away in detest at herself.

"What's wrong?" Hayate asked putting a hand to her cheek, making her turn her head slightly.

She gasped slightly, "you're not, mad?"

"Why would I? It's a wonderful thing your pregnant. What did you think I would hate you or something for it?"

Sharuu nodded her head slightly.

"Well, don't ever think that again!" Hayate said as he pulled her into a slow passionate kiss.

Before Shaga had any time to say anything, their surroundings began fading and before Shaga knew it, they were floating above a city.

"This is 8 months forward, towards the time of your birth," Hayate explained.

Hayate looked down to see one man running towards a hospital. "See him, that's me again."

This time Hayate was obviously human and was wearing a black open jacket, a purple vest top, a pair of black jeans and a pair of black sneakers with purple laces.

Bursting into the Hospital, he ran up to the desk and asked, "I need to see Hemuri Sharuu!"

"You do know she's currently in labour? Are you a relative?" The receptionist asked.

"I'm her boyfriend, the one who's child she's pregnant with."

The receptionist looked at him before saying, "follow me," as she lead him through the winding corridors to the room where his girlfriend was.

As the doors burst open, Sharuu weakly turned her head to see the person she wanted to see the most right now, "Hayate!"

"Sharuu!" Hayate said, happy to see she was okay, rushing over to the bed to give her a little hug.

"I thought you would never make it in time- AHH!" Sharuu held her stomach in pain as her face scrunched up.

"Sir, we need you to step back a little, she's about to give birth here," the doctor in the room explained.

The Hayate floating in the air waved his hand as time skipped forward, the world around them blurring once again.

"What? Do you really want to see your mother give birth to you?" Hayate asked.

Shaga just turned his head in disgust at the thought of seeing it now.

When time re-blurred, Hayate was sitting on the edge of the bed and Sharuu was laying there, panting slightly holding a new born baby in a purple blanket. The birth had gone off without a hitch, the new born baby boy was just fine.

"What should we call him?" Sharuu asked her boyfriend.

"Maybe Kenji?" Hayate suggested.

"Or Feng?" Sharuu responded.

The two thought on it for a minute before a good name dawned on the silver haired man.

"What about, Shaga?"

"Shaga?" Sharuu asked a little surprised by the name. But it slowly settled in on her, "yeah, Shaga, that's actually a good name for you little one."

She turned her head back to the baby, Shaga, who was sound asleep in his purple blanket, only his face showing through it.

Soon after this, Sharuu's face lit up with pain as she began screaming the house down.

"Sharuu? Sharuu!" Hayate screamed in response, trying to find out what was wrong with her.

As the screaming continued, Hayate skipped time forward again and closed his eyes in sadness as the next scene unfolded.

"Sharuu." Hayate was sitting out on that rock again, the new born Shaga in his blanket next to him fast asleep, watching not only the multi-coloured sunset but also a small boat on fire drifting out far to sea. For you see, when a member of a clan dies and their body is still with them, clan members would set small boats with their bodies in on fire as they drifted towards the sunset, the gateway to the realm of the eternal. When the last glimpse of sunset disappeared, the boat would go with it, to the realm of the eternal where your soul would arise from the fire and you would freely walk the watery plains until you found someone special to you. Then your soul would truly be at rest. Hayate knew Sharuu's soul would never be free until he died, but he wasn't going to go down just yet, he was waiting to die naturally, to show Sharuu he cared.

Once the boat was gone and the sunset fully gone with it, Hayate sprang back into the water, taking the baby in the blanket with him to his new home, the Ice he'd found.

Hayate opened his eyes, waved his hand as the world turned purple and returned the two back to their own time again.

"If all of what you've just shown me is true, then, I really am your son." Shaga said slowly to himself as all the scenes put together made perfect sense. "But, you were a merman before?"

"Yeah, I had my power and tail stripped from me when I lost you, Aqua-Regina Sama was very mad at me for losing you so easily." Hayate scratched his head in annoyance.

"Aqua-Regina? You mean that floating goddess dressed in white?" Shaga asked, remembering the scene of Kaito's trial completion.

"Yeah, you met her already?" Hayate asked in return.

"No, I saw her when Kaito was turned into a merman, when he completed this so-called trial."

"Ahh, that makes sense, son."

"Yeah," Shaga said to himself again. "Listen, Dad, I'm sorry but, I need to go, this isn't where I belong. I belong on the surface with my second parents (Shaga was re-adopted by a family with the last name of Yatsu, but he kept his last name of Ameru in memory of his 'parents.' I may be a Serebu but, I'm still an Ameru back home, back on land."

Hayate sighed. 'Plans going perfectly, kids trying to return to the surface, guess those scenes worked their magic on his mind after all.' "That's fine by me. Just to warn you though, we're in an ice cube basically, on the floor of the ocean, in the middle of nowhere. Good luck getting home." He called to Shaga, as he had already stood up and was currently working his way down the Ice halls to the front door. It just looked liked the water suddenly began when you stepped outside.

Shaga held his breath closed his eyes, and leapt out the front door, expecting to float. But no, he felt gravity pull him down as his feet touched the Sea bed. Upon doing this, he slowly opened his eyes to find his eye sight wasn't blurred like earlier, it was so clear it was like he was on land. He gasped in surprise, finding out he could breathe.

'That's right,' he thought, 'Hayate did mention that clan members were born in the seas, of course they can live and breathe okay down here. Hmmmm, I can't really shoot to the surface to find Japan, I'm in the middle of nowhere.'

An image of Luchia popped into his mind. 'That's right. Kaito mentioned Luchia had a Palace in the Sea, she's a princess after all. If I can just find it by swimming around for a bit, I'll be okay. Who knows, I find one of the other 7 Palaces before hers. I'm sure they'd be willing to help me. Boy will Luchia have a surprise though if she's sees me here.'

He looked around deciding on a direction and swimming out in that direction. He found out that if he actually thought about swimming, he would begin floating in the water like a normal human, all he had to do though was kick his feet and he was off.

* * *

During this time, it was already morning in Luchia's palace and everyone was awake eating breakfast at the table.

"Where do you think Kaito went to?" Hanon asked realising he wasn't with everyone.

"He left me a note saying he went out for an early morning swim, said he wanted to clear his mind from a weird dream he had last night," Luchia replied.

"He's been having a few weird dreams recently and when he does, strange things happen," Rina joined in before taking a massive hungry bite out of her seaweed toast.

Yes, Kaito had another weird dream last night, a boy who Kaito could only see a shadowy figure was kidnapped and brought into the Sea by another figure who was unclear to him. His mind replayed another part of it where he passed the trial, only he saw it from an aerial point of view. Looking out onto the land, he saw a shadow behind a rock, looking around as if he was watching Kaito. This worried him greatly, someone had seen him and on the surface, they would probably be question everything. The truth behind the disappearance of the 4 class mates and 2 others and also mermaids, not good as far as Kaito was concerned.

Kaito was swimming around the reefs of the North Pacific trying to clear his head. It was probably nothing, but the last weird dream turned out to be true. And the dream about Nagisa choking on some boiled clams the next morning.

* * *

Shaga was growing tired. He'd been swimming around aimlessly for what seemed liked hours to him now. He decided to take a quick breather sitting on a rock and deciding which direction he should swim in now. For all he knew, he'd felt like he'd swam around half the world and was now well and truly lost. He thought about heading to the surface and looking around but knowing his luck, he'd still be nowhere.

Luck was sort of on his side though, he just happened to be sitting on a rock in a coral reef, the reefs of the North Pacific nonetheless. Looking around him, a figure came into sight, one with a tail.

Shaga mentally gasped staring at the figure, 'that's, Kaito!'

"Domouto Kaito?" Shaga called out getting his attention.

Kaito froze for a minute. 'Who, on earth, in the middle of the seas, except the people I know, know who I am?'

Slowly, Kaito turned around to the source of the voice, a man about the age of 17 sitting on one of the rocks he usually liked to sit on to clear his thoughts and sit there in general with Luchia for comfort. Kaito studied the figure, dark skin, weird eyes, wings on his feet, a necklace bearing a clan logo.

He swam closer to the figure much to Shaga's surprise as he didn't expect Kaito to get so close.

'So, Kaito really is a merman,' Shaga thought as he studied Kaito staring at his newly acquired necklace.

"Let's see, a black open heart with ivy and barbed wire, seems like you're a member of the Serebu clan, previous servers to Karen's kingdom. But how do you know my name?" Kaito asked him. Since Kaito was a prince and almost a king, he would also need to catch up on Clan knowledge that he should have learnt living in the seas if it weren't for Aqua Regina sending him to live life as a human.

"You don't recognise me? Look at the scar," Shaga said brushing his hair out of his face a little so the scar could be fully seen.

Kaito looked at the scar as an image of an all too familiar class mate popped into his head.

"AMERU SHAGA?!" Kaito screamed as his brain worked out who it was. Only one person he knew had a scar that strange, Ameru Shaga, well, Serebu Shaga to be correct.

"Hi," he said meekly as Kaito swam back a bit, just staring at him in shock.

* * *

**Nexus: And that was the long awaited chapter 10, a build up to chapter 11, where the whole point of this story comes out!**

**Nagisa: What happened to us this chapter?**

**Masahiro: That's right, we said nothing at all, Luchia, Hanon and Rina each got one line each and we get nothing!?**

**Nexus: You'll get your chances next chapter. You don't see the top 3 main characters complaining even though they only got one line each this chapter, right guys.**

***Luchia, Hanon and Rina all giving evils at me***

**Nexus: Hehe, maybe we should party instead, Gangnam style. *horsey dancing time***

**(seems even these guys are addicted to it, it was claimed the best moment of 2012)**

**Nexus: Well, I've reached chapter 10 of my first story, and I'm really happy with myself. I tried to write this chapter 3 times. Twice my lappy overheated on me when I left it alone and once I hit the backspace key but I wasn't typing in the box so I lost a good 2000 words each time!**

**Nagisa: But at least you did it.**

**Kaito: He's right, and just one question, why did you have Shaga find me of all people?**

**Nexus: To explain the weird dream thing, that plays a vital role further on.**

**Now, I can't promise when chapter 11 will be up, it's coming to the end of my winter break and I have 5 days left to complete 5 briefs of college work. I'll get to work on it when I can but I'll likely update another story before I update this one, I'm sorry!**


	11. Chapter 11: Secrets and the Ring

**Nexus: This might seem a little strange for some people. I did say this would be on hold for a while and on my profile, I stated I wouldn't upload it until I finished ILE,WIFI? Well, I got 2 more chapters of that story done, but I can't think of much for the next chapter as my brain gave me a wave of ideas for this next chapter yesterday! This is good for all the fans of this story.**

**And since it's been a while, I'd like to thank...**

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**Everyone: We all give you a massive thank you and we hope you enjoy chapter 11**

* * *

Chapter 11: Secrets and the Ring

**- Last time- **

**"You don't recognise me? Look at the scar," Shaga said brushing his hair out of his face a little so the scar could be fully seen.**

**Kaito looked at the scar as an image of an all too familiar class mate popped into his head.**

**"AMERU SHAGA?!" Kaito screamed as his brain worked out who it was. Only one person he knew had a scar that strange, Ameru Shaga, well, Serebu Shaga to be correct.**

**"Hi," he said meekly as Kaito swam back a bit, just staring at him in shock.**

"What are you doing here?" Kaito asked after he'd swam behind the nearby rock, his head poking over the top and the end of his tail wrapped around the side of it, just in case Shaga had some weird purpose for being down here.

"I could ask you and your friends the same thing!" Shaga retaliated.

"You know, I'm getting really tired of people always saying '_I could ask you the same thing_' and... wait, my friends?"

"Yes, Luchia, Hanon, Rina, their boyfriends... that lot." Shaga dragged their names on a little. "You leave the school for a year and through twisted events that should be impossible, I find you _here_ like _this_!"

"Hold on how, how much do you know?"

"Come out from behind that rock and I'll tell you," Shaga said plainly. He didn't want to talk to Kaito about these matter with him hiding.

Kaito sighed and left the vicinity of the rock and swam over to where Shaga was, and sat down beside him.

"How is this all even possible?" Shaga said in utter disbelief.

"What's even possible?" Kaito asked.

"All of this! How I'm at the bottom of the ocean with you, how you're a merman, let alone anything that's not been said about your friends yet. I want answers Kaito," Shaga replied.

"Okay, but, why don't we start with you?" Kaito asked. "Since when were you the member of a clan?"

"Apparently, since birth. I'm a lot like you, I had a fake family. My mother died when I was born and my father took me back to the seas. He says he lost me 2 weeks after I was bought back home and I, like you, picked up a foster family. But when I was 10, I lost them the same way you did, on a boat accident. And the weirdest part about this all, Luchia was the one who saved me for the disaster."

"Luchia?" Kaito asked shocked. "So not only are we both clan members, had a foster family, lost them in the same way, the same mermaid saved us too?"

"Seems that way," Shaga continued. "When I woke up though, I was all alone in a hospital bed. I was lucky though, a second foster family had taken me in. My first family's name, my real family, was Serebu. Hence the clan I belong to as it seems my father hosts the clans last name. My second family, foster family 1, had the last name I do now, Ameru. Since I knew them the most, I kept it once they died as a serving memory for them. And my third family, my current foster family 2, have the last name of Yatsu."

"Sounds harsh, how did you come to being down here then?" Kaito then asked.

"It was last night."

"Last night?"

Shaga then began the long talk again. "When you came to the surface with Luchia and got transformed into what you are now by that woman, what was her name again... Aqua Regina? Back then I saw the whole thing. I was going to follow you until a man named Serebu Hayate stopped me and told me many things that didn't make any sense. I wanted answers but he said 'it was too dangerous to talk here' and dragged me into the sea. When I woke up, he explained to me that I was his father and was a member of his clan, the Serebu Clan. Since I didn't believe him, he showed me a set of video's almost, it was like I was there when what happened happened. He showed me his girlfriend Sharuu, who was pregnant with me so that girl was my mother. He showed me her death as well. My father used to be a merman until Aqua Regina later stripped him of that power because he lost me so easily. I felt the clan's home and I ended up out here, hoping I would find one of you lot first and I did."

Kaito took in all the information before putting an arm around Shaga. "I'm sorry that all of this happened to you Shaga, is there anything me or Luchia can do to help?"

Then it hit Shaga, "your turn now. Tell me all about you and Luchia then, and your friends. I want to know if what Hayate said is really true. Start with now and then go to the start."

Kaito was a bit confused about why he wanted it in that order but still happily told Shaga his story. "Well, as for starters, you know that Luchia is a mermaid, the mermaid princess of the North Pacific Ocean and that we've being going out for quite some time now. We had to come back to her home in the sea, here, because the two of us are getting married. Luchia has to marry into Royalty and since I'm the prince of the Panthalassa Clan, she's allowed to marry me. The reason why I'm a merman though now, is a little more complicated."

"I have time," Shaga answered.

"Alright then. When we first came here, she cast a spell on me that would allow a Clan member to possess a tail as long as they had a piece of seaweed toast everyday, because it apparently has a power that keeps the spell alive. And as long as I didn't return to the surface, it would stay. The night we came down here though, I had a dream about Luchia all thanks to my brother Gaito, who informed me about a trial. A clan member can take it when they are in love in order to become a permanent merperson. The Clan members lover is taken by someone close to them, for me, Luchia was taken by Gaito, and then copied leaving the real and the fake. To tell which one is which, there is usually one inside difference that will help you work out which is which. And as you can guess, I worked it out. This is also the reason why you saw me become a merman thanks to Aqua Regina-sama, she completed the transformation for me."

"Whoa, sounds like a lot happened on your end as well. Now, your friends?" Shaga asked, jogging him memory.

"Oh yeah, Hanon is the mermaid princess of the South Atlantic Ocean whilst Rina is mermaid princess of the North Atlantic Ocean. As for Masahiro and Nagisa, when we all got into some trouble a long time ago, Luchia found a book on merpeople that included a ritual spell for turning normal humans into merpeople with their consent and some magic. Sine Luchia is Aqua Regina-sama's successor, we used her through Luchia's body to complete the rituals, meaning that Nagisa and Masahiro agreed and on their own will, became mermen. We came back about 3 days ago and we've been living in Luchia's Palace since. Once all the wedding business is over though, Hanon and Nagisa will return to the South Atlantic for the rest of our time down here and Rina and Masahiro will return to the North Atlantic. We're down here for a year though, once the year is up, we may return to the human world. That sound about right from what you know?"

"You've given it to me in more detail but the basic's are essentially the same. I still can't believe that this happened to you," Shaga said plainly.

"That what happened?"

"That you got turned into a merman."

"I don't mind really, I was already a prince of the sea. This transformation, if of anything, has made me feel more whole. Don't you feel like something's missing?" He asked turning his head to Shaga.

It was true, being down here, Shaga did feel like something was missing. "Yes."

"That's every clan members desire, the desire to be free in the world of merpeople. Maybe one day you'll go through the trial too." Kaito smiled at the end to try and cheer Shaga up.

Shaga eventually smiled before asking, "it's a big deal to ask of you, but could you take me to see Luchia and everyone else?"

"Why?"

"If want to ask Luchia if she can take me home, not back to Hayate, but back with my foster family. I know I'm a member of a clan but currently I belong with my foster family. Plus in the human world, I've technically disappeared, everyone will be worrying about me." Shaga's voice saddened at the end.

Kaito felt his pain and agreed. "I'll take you to them, just look over there." Kaito's hand was pointing behind them.

Shaga whipped his body around and stared in awe at the glowing pink castle that was quite far away in the distance. "Is that?"

"Yep, Luchia's home. Where we're sat now is the coral reefs of this Ocean, I always come here when I troubled, it's truly fate that we even met at all. Let's go," Kaito said as he grabbed Shaga's hand and literally began pulling him towards the Castle as he swam at great speed.

_*Whoa, he's fast!* _Shaga thought as he just let Kaito carry on pulling him.

* * *

Back at the Palace, Luchia had been sat around waiting for Kaito to return from his swim. As for Hanon, Rina, Nagisa and Masahiro, they'd gone. During the wedding preparations in the morning, they noticed on the list there were two things they needed that Hanon and Rina's Kingdoms owned. Naturally, Hanon and Nagisa left for the South Atlantic and Rina and Masahiro to the North. They would stay there for the night and then return to Luchia's Kingdom the next morning.

"Mou, how long is Kaito going to be this morning?" Luchia asked herself, sighing as she sat down on her bed.

Just as if someone above had heard her prayer, a knock came to her bedroom door.

"Who is it?" She asked in a monotone voice.

"I thought you'd be perhaps a little bit happy to hear I'm back," the voice behind the door replied.

"Kaito!" Luchia said as her face lifted with happiness and literally threw the door open to reveal Kaito.

"I'm back." He said plainly before launching into a hug and a nice long needed kiss with her.

After they 'eventually' broke apart from each other, Luchia asked, "how come you took so long out on the reefs this morning?"

"Well," Kaito began to say, scratching his head. "I kinda ran into someone."

Luchia crossed her arms. "Don't tell me it's another person we know from the human world who is actually one of us or a clan member again?" Her voice was slightly sarcastic but more annoyed.

Kaito just sighed at her, swimming to the side and pulling Shaga in front of him, holding him by the wrist.

"I found this guy, recognise the scar at all?" Kaito asked, trying to make it easier for her to see who it was.

Luchia gasped once she'd worked out who it was. "You're, Ameru Shaga? You're in our class aren't you? You're a, clan member?"

"Yes. I must say, I'm still dead surprised and shocked on the inside to find out that you're really a mermaid in all fairness. Why did you never tell anyone?" Shaga asked.

"It was a law, no mermaid or merman was ever allowed to tell a human what they were or they would be turned into foam. There's an exception to clan members though and we've just recently learnt that the previous law is a bunch of bull, it's not true at all." Luchia explained. "But how did you end up down here, let alone find out what you are?"

Shaga then spent the next 5 minutes sitting on Luchia's bed in between her and Kaito explaining to Luchia what had happened. About seeing them, being dragged down by Hayate, finding out about his real mother and father.

"And one more thing, when the ship accident happened 7 years ago, when I was 10, it was you who saved me."

"Heh, I, saved you? I remember saving a human but I wouldn't have guessed it was you at all, you looked so different back then with shorter hair and no scar. How did you get that scar anyway?" Luchia asked.

"Hayate still never told me that, it's not important anyway. What _is _important is what I asked Kaito to bring me here for, can you take me home?"

"Take you home?"

"Not to Hayate, but to the surface. I can't stay here much longer. I've been gone since yesterday and everyone will be worrying about me right now. My family more so, because I technically never returned last night."

Luchia understood the situation, but also knew they were suppose to stay here for the year. "Even though I'm not supposed to go to the surface, I'll at least take you close to the shore. Deal?" She extended her hand out to Shaga.

"Deal!" Shaga replied shaking it.

Before they left the room though, a knock came at the door.

"Who is it?" Luchia asked again.

"It's Yukairi!" Yukairi said in a happy manor.

"Come in then," Luchia replied.

As Yukairi came in through the door, her eyes were fixated on the man in front of her who she'd never seen before.

"And who's this?" Yukairi asked in a harsh tone.

"Don't sound so mean, this is Shaga. A member of the Serebu clan." Luchia explained.

"Serebu, you mean the previous servers to Karen's kingdom?"

"Karen, she's one of you too?" Shaga asked.

Luchia then silenced him. "Shh, we'll talk on the way up."

"Yukairi, can I ask you to watch the palace? Me and Kaito are going to return Shaga to the surface. He got dragged down here against his will and we need to get him back. If anyone ask's about me, just say I went to look for Kaito because he still hadn't come back yet."

Yukairi then saluted. "Leave it to me Luchia-sama!"

"Thank you Yukairi," Kaito said smiling at her.

Yukairi then blushed slightly before turning her head away from them. "It's, it's okay. It's one of the duties of a servant to follow the Princess's commands. See you later then." She then swam at high speed out of the room and went back to working.

Kaito just tilted his head. "Strange girl."

"Agreed," Luchia and Shaga said nodding their heads in agreement.

"Are we going now or what?" Shaga asked.

"Yep, lets go then." Luchia said pulling Shaga with her, Kaito following in tow.

Together, the three of them snuck out of the palace unnoticed and began swimming for the surface in a sort of diagonal line.

"So, Karen is a princess too?" Shaga asked, bringing up the 'to be talked about on the way up' topic.

"Yes," Kaito began. "In total there are seven princesses. Luchia, ruler of the North Pacific Ocean. Hanon and Rina, rulers of the North and South Atlantic Oceans, Hanon to South and Rina to the north. Then there's Karen and Noel, Noel is the ruler of the Arctic Ocean and Karen is ruler of the Antarctic Ocean. Coco is the ruler of the South Pacific Ocean and finally, Sara and young Seira. Since Sara is still alive, she is the ruler to the Indian Ocean but when she goes, Seira will rule in her place."

"Whoa, and that's just seven princesses, let alone everyone within the Kingdom or outlying clans. That girl said that my clan previously served Karen's Kingdom, what does that mean?"

Luchia took this one. "Out of all 20 clans, 7 of them were chosen to guard the mermaid kingdoms. The Panthalassa Clan, Kaito's Clan, are guards to my Kingdom. The Octavious still serve Hanon and the Verenasus still serve Rina. You're clan, the Serebu Clan used to serve Karen, until a war broke out, leaving the Batsumo Clan to serve instead. Then we have the Makala Clan who serve Noel and are also a brotherly Clan with the Batsumo to show the bond between the two Kingdoms, Karen and Noel are pretty much sisters after all. To the South of me, the Janobu Clan serve Coco. This last one is tough, since Sara went on rampage and destroyed her kingdom, the Kerasus Clan split up. But since Seira came to life, they've bound back together and are re-building the kingdom."

"I question why I'm ever asking you all this, it's not like I'm coming back to the Ocean any time soon."

"Trust me on this one Shaga, no clan member can resist the call of the Ocean for long. That's why I surf, to keep that close connection. Didn't you ever feel a strange connection to it?" Kaito asked.

"Well, I did usually go for a late walk on the beach most nights, I don't know what gave me the urge to do so," Shaga replied now dwelling on the past.

After about another 10 minutes, they were nearly there.

Luchia held out her left arm, halting the boys. "Wait here, I need to check the coast is clear."

Luchia slowly poked her head above the surface and noticed they were only 40 feet from the shore. Lucky for them, no-one was around, what with it being a school day and all.

She popped her head back down, signalling to the boys that it was okay to surface.

Breaking the surface, Shaga had forgotten all about how good it felt to breathe real air.

When Shaga saw the beach, he couldn't be happier. It had only been one day, but he'd missed dry land so much!

He turned around to Luchia and Kaito and said, "thank you so much you two. I don't know what I'd do without you."

Kaito just laughed slightly. "I guess not much. Well, you could have run into Hanon or Rina I suppose."

Shaga then laughed too. "I guess so. By the way, give them my best, you know, Nagisa and Masahiro."

"What do you mean?"

"Just give them my best, for being brave about the whole situation. From what I've heard, they've practically given up the human side of them just to be with the ones I love. I hope those two are happy with their new lives, so, give them my best."

Once they both understood, they nodded and watched Shaga as he swam back to shore.

"It feels good to be back," Shaga said to himself before turning around and waving to Luchia and Kaito.

They in returned waved back and watched as Shaga ran into the distance, back home presumably.

"So now what?" Kaito asked.

"What do you mean now what?" Luchia asked in return confused.

"I mean, what do we do now? Do we go back or do we..."

"You're not seriously suggesting we stay here for a bit?" Luchia asked.

"Why not?"

"Isn't that breaking our promise, of staying in the seas for a year."

"Not really, as long as we don't leave the sea, right?" Kaito said being clever.

Luchia actually saw his clever point. "What do you suggest we do?"

"Just stay up here for a bit, I miss the human world and breathing real air after 3 days."

With that said, the two of them found their special rock and sat themselves upon it. When I say sat, Luchia sat with her tail in the water, whilst Kaito had sprawled himself out across the rock, letting the ends of his fins dangle in the water.

A couple of hours flew by, the two just sitting there enjoying the rays of the mid day sun. It was good for them.

After a while, Kaito finally brought up what he'd been wanting to tell Luchia for a while. He rearranged himself so he was sitting on his tail like he was sitting on his knees.

"Luchia?"

She spun herself around to talk to him. "What is it?"

"I think it's time I let my true feelings out, about all of this," he said motioning to his tail.

Luchia looked down at it before a hand was brought to her cheek that turned her head to look directly at Kaito.

He slowly dropped the hand and began to speak. "I can't begin to thank you enough over everything that's happened over the last 3 days. Before, I was afraid that I would lose you. We all knew one day you would have to return to the sea, and at the time, we all knew I couldn't stay with you forever. I may have had duties as a clan member, but my love for the human world overrides that fact. That was until we defeat Mikeru. I realised then, nothing could split us up. If you went back to sea, I would go with you. And after all that's happened now, it doesn't matter which world we stay in, we're welcomed in both. Ever since I became a merman, I've truly become a part of your world. We're human and mer in the same ways, we belong in both worlds and this, is a great bond between us. Nagisa and Masahiro sealed their bonds faster, so I'm overjoyed that our bonds were sealed not long after. I love you Luchia, the fact that I've decided to marry you and stay with you, no matter where we go, is only but a small token of my love. But there is one more thing I need, wait here."

Before Luchia could say anything, Kaito dove into the sea and swam under the rock. There was a little hole within the rock where he'd hidden a little bag. He grabbed the bag and surfaced in front of Luchia. Her faced was still flushed from his kind speech a minute ago.

Unscrambling the bag, he dove in for the content, a small black box.

Luchia looked closely at the box, before her eyes grew wide, realising what was in it.

Kaito slowly opened it in front of her to reveal a ring. The ring was pure silver, consisting of three intertwined and weaving bands that looked like moving water. The centre of the ring itself was a small yet detailed image of Luchia and Kaito, holding each other closely, their tails wrapped around each other. 2 hearts were shaped above them, the one of the left bigger than the other, representing the ring that Kaito had given Luchia a couple of years ago. When she looked closer, there were words engraved in the hearts. 'Land or sea, we'll always be together.'

Luchia gasped and covered her mouth with both hands, tears streaming down her face, the occasional happy sob coming in between.

"Luchia?" Kaito asked worried. He wasn't sure if she was happy or sad.

Luchia then launched herself at an unsuspecting Kaito, pushing them under the waves. Kaito quickly grabbed the box and clamped it tightly in his left hand.

When he recovered he looked at her face again, to see she was crying with tears of happiness, even though the tears practically melted into the water around them.

"Do I take it then that this is a yes?" Kaito asked.

"Yes yes YES, a thousand times yes!" Luchia screamed as she hugged Kaito ever so lightly, like she was clinging on for dear life.

Kaito just smiled and closed his eyes. "I'm happy. I'm so happy that I gave this all up for you."

Once Luchia had recovered from her tears and happiness, Kaito re-took out the ring and slid it onto her finger.

"That leads me to think of something, where did you get this ring and when?" Luchia asked.

"Well..."

**FLASHBAC****K **

_It was the morning that Yamu kun was returning home, the day before Shaga was found as Shaga had been knocked out for a whole day._

_Yamu was just about to leave before._

_"Yamu!" Kaito called as he swam to catch up to him._

_He stopped and looked behind him to see Kaito._

_"What is it?" He asked._

_"I was just wondering about something, do you know anyone on the surface who would be any good at making rings for people like us?" Kaito asked in return._

_Yamu smiled. "You're in luck, you'll be wanting to see my father. He works at a local jewellers and jewellery maker. But if the right person is asking, items for merpeople can be forged behind the lock doors of the shops. He works at Dark Jewellers, the shop in our local centre on floor 2. Go there and show him proof of who you are and he'll be willing to forge anything for you. What were you thinking of doing?"_

_"I want to get Luchia a special ring for our wedding, one that symbolises our relationship and homes on both land and sea now."_

_Yamu just smiled again. "Yep, father will have no worries about it. Also, tell him I said hi, I haven't seen him in a while, not since I left on the same day you did, he'll be wondering where I went to again, he never knows where I am. See you some other time Kaito." And with that said, Yamu began the long swim home to his Clan._

_Once he'd gone, Kaito then began his swim to the surface, remembering the way he came down._

_When he broke the surface, he looked to make sure no one was near 'round and hopped up onto a nearby low cliff, the same one Luchia had once sat on._

_He sat there for a few minutes before asking himself, "how long does it take to change back?"_

_About 30 seconds later, his legs flashed bright red and before he knew it, he had legs again. He was back to wearing a white t-shirt his red short sleeved jacket, a pair of black jeans and some simple converse._

_When he stood up, he nearly fell over. "It can't surely be this hard to walk, it's only been 2 days, god."_

_Once he'd manage to get his balance back, he headed into town._

_He eventually arrived at the place, Dark Jewellers. He walked inside the shop and was greeted by a 42 year old man who had the same sort of looks as Yamu, just a lot older and had a little more muscle and was much taller too. "Can I help you there kid?" The man asked politely._

_"Yeah, a boy named Meguro Yamu sent me to you. Do you know him?"_

_"Yamu, he's my son! I'm Meguro Arrou. What can I do for you?" Arrou replied in a friendly manor._

_"I need something forged, but not for humans." Kaito stated._

_"What do you know kid? Whisper it."_

_Kaito then whispered the word, 'merpeople' in his ear which peaked Arrou's interest straight away._

_"I'm gonna need to see some form of ID that you are son, or at least a clan member._

_Kaito thought about it for a second before lifting some hair off of his fringe as the mark on his forehead glowed lightly._

_Arrou now recognised who he was. "Are you Domouto Kaito? Prince of the Panthalassa Clan?" Arrou whispered._

_"Yep, that's me." Kaito said before he was being dragged to the back of the store by Arrou._

_Arrou quickly unlocked the black chained door that was there and dragged him in, firmly shutting it behind him._

_"Rumours are that you, Luchia, Hanon and Rina all left for a year. Why are you here now?" Arrou asked._

_"If your Yamu's father you should know what we all are and why we left." Kaito stated._

_"Yes, the duties of a princess, to return to the sea and marry into royalty- wait!" It had suddenly hit Arrou, the reason why they'd left._

_"You, and Luchia, are getting married?" Arrou asked._

_"Right, and I wanted you to forge a special ring for me, to symbolise are love on the both the land we've lived on and the sea where we were born."_

_"Awwwww, such a sucker for romance, alright," Arrou said softly before flicking a switch which threw the room into complete brightness._

_When Kaito looked around again, he saw a massive pool of water and a large crafting table at the bottom, materials laid all around it._

_"So, this is where you forge items, down there?" Kaito asked._

_"Items for merpeople are usually forged my mytherial steel and by the hands of a clan member, with masters in forging, like me for example. Now, you coming in or what?" Arrou asked as he dove into the water, his clothes melting away and a dark green tail, the shade a little darker than his own hair, appearing._

_"So, he's like Yamu then, born that way, one of the 9 special born. Him and Yamu being 2 of them, just 7 left in the Verenasus Clan, I must add that to the records when I get back," Kaito reminded himself. Since he was soon to be married and was taking lessons on clan history, he was told to keep a record of who the 9 special born were in each clan. The clans never gave away which were the special born, but you could always tell by the strange colour of their eyes, they were light in the middle and grew darker around the edges._

_Kaito then followed in after, to see that Arrou had already set on preparing his materials. There was another little stool at the bottom so Kaito took rest on that whilst Arrou got ready._

_Arrou eventually looked up after he finished his preparations. "And since when did this happen?" He asked, clearly making point to Kaito's appendage._

_"I was put through the trial 1 day after we arrived. I guess the world decided it was time already. We were going to use the ritual spell but since I'm not human, we couldn't do that." Kaito explained._

_"Hang on, 'the' ritual spell. Since when did you get your hands on it?" Arrou questioned._

_Kaito then explained the whole situation but left out Nagisa and Masahiro._

_"I see, so if the ritual wasn't for you, was it for Nagisa and Masahiro?" _

_Kaito's mouth dropped before he quickly closed it. "How did you work it out so fast?"_

_Arrou just laughed. "I haven't seen them since you left either. Their parents had informed me that they'd gone with you lot so I presume the ritual spell was used to turn them into merman, am I right?"_

_"Yes, now, if you don't mind, I'm not even supposed to be here right now so do you mind if we hurry it up?" Kaito asked._

_"Of course."_

_After about an hour of working together, they'd finally forged the perfect ring._

_"It's perfect, thank you ever so much Arrou. What do I owe you?" Kaito asked, he was sure he would have to do something in return for such a wonderfully crafted item._

_"Nothing really, but if Yamu sent you here, where is he? I never know where that kid is nowadays." Arrou pleaded._

_"He went back to the Verenasus Clan's home this morning, he was helping us with the trial which is why I asked him if he knew anyone who could forge items for us on land, and he said you. But that's where he is," Kaito explained._

_"Thanks kid, that's all. Enjoy life with Luchia for a year."_

_Kaito then shook Arrou's hand before climbing out the pool, transforming, getting the ring put in a box and sneaking back to the Ocean, making sure no-one saw him._

_He might have failed though, for his friend Daisuke saw him coming out the shop and had followed him all the way back to the Ocean. When he saw Kaito disappear under the waves and never surface, he knew something was wrong with the whole 'leaving' situation. He wasn't entirely sure it was Kaito though, his hair looked a little different and his eyes had changed colour slightly, to be more of a reddy orange colour. He was sure it was just someone who looked like him and left the situation alone._

**END FLASHBACK**

"Kaito! I thought the law was no going back to the surface?!" She shouted in annoyance.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to get something special for you," he pleaded.

Luchia sighed. "You made sure no-one saw you right?"

"Positive."

Luchia then pulled Kaito in for a long sweet kiss, she was just so happy that he'd gone out of the way so much, breaking rules, just to get her the perfect ring.

Once they broke apart, Kaito said, "I take it you're happy about the ring then?"

"More than I can express," she replied. "we should be heading back though, we've been gone nearly 3 hours, you can't have been out at the reefs 'this' long, now can you?"

"I guess so, lets go then."

And with that said, Kaito and Luchia swam back home, unaware of the person who'd been following them home the entire time.

"Not long now little mermaid princess, not long now until your pearls are all mine!"

* * *

**Nexus: God! I thought this chapter was never going to end. I promise they'll be more action next time! Well, it's going to be one of those chapters where the perspective changes a lot. Between Hanon, Rina, Luchia, Daisuke, the one who'd been following them home...**

**Daisuke: Since when do I come into this story!?**

**Kaito: Since now, we need someone from the human world for the next chapter for a short amount of time, after all, you play a vital role in part 2.**

**Daisuke: I do!?**

**Everyone: You do.**

**Shaga: So what now, I've gone to the surface and that's it?**

**Nexus: Nooooo, not quite, you might be coming back...**

**Shaga: Well why not use me as the human perspective instead of Daisuke?**

**Nexus: Because it's my story! You know to much now anyway and you're not all human. I need a PURE human perspective, not clan member perspective.**

**Well, it might be a while before chapter 12 comes out but just be glad you even got a chapter 11!**

**Everyone: See you all next time! xxx**


	12. Chapter 12: Ineffective Songs

**Nexus: I'M SORRY! I'm sorry everyone for not updating this one first like I said I would, but it is done nonetheless! I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who's reviewed it recently and an even bigger thanks to my new followers and favers. I'll give you a shout out at the beginning of the next chapter! ^_^**

**Hayate: Oh by the way thanks, for bringing me back into the story. I know I'm a good guy out of this story in another one of yours but this is flipping the tables a little too much.**

**Nexus: It can't be helped, you had the best evil look and were the closest thing I could get for Shaga's father, sorry.**

**Shaga: I still can't believe you made me his son.**

**Nexus: My story, my rules, shut up or get locked in the closet!**

***Shaga and Hayate shut up***

**Nexus: Since I've ran out of books for them to read, locking them in the closet is easier. Even so, Luchia, Hanon!**

**Luchia and Hanon: Right!**

**Luchia: Nexus doesn't own any of the mermaid melody characters.**

**Hanon: However she does own any OC's used in the story and her ideas.**

**Everyone: Enjoy chapter 12!**

* * *

Chapter 12: Ineffective Songs

**- Last time -**

** Kaito and Luchia swam back home, unaware of the person who'd been following them home the entire time.**

**"Not long now little mermaid princess, not long now until your pearls are all mine!"**

* * *

**- At the South Atlantic Palace -**

Hanon and Nagisa had only just arrived from their long swim.

"Whoa, this is where you live?" Nagisa said in excitement as he looked at the shining blue palace.

"Yeah, the South Atlantic Palace, our Lifestyle here is very laid back and we take pride in our jewellery. The oceans around here are filled with countless Gems and precious Ores just waiting to be discovered and used by us. We also use our materials in conjunction with Rina's Kingdom and Noel's Kingdom." Hanon explained.

"So what are we here for exactly?" Nagisa asked, after coming all this way.

"A rare sacred gemstone that is used as part of the ritual during a wedding, to bind the souls of the couple together forever."

"Heh? Then lets not waist any time in retrieving it then," Nagisa said before swimming through the palace doors with Hanon.

It was strange, no-one was really around, the palace seemed quite barren and empty, most of the servants would have been at work in the castle or out in the ore fields.

When Hanon saw the throne room in sight, there was one mermaid sitting on one of the tables nearby all alone, head on one hand, the other hand being used to tap the table.

"Meru!" Hanon shouted to get her attention.

Sure as sure can be, Meru perked up at the voice and turned to see a waving Hanon.

"Hanon-sama!" Meru called back as she got up from her gloomy state and swam straight into Hanon, knocking her back a bit. "It's so good to see you back, this place has been a mess without you recently."

"So I see, hardly anyone's around, are they all at work?" Hanon asked after releasing herself from Meru's hold.

"Some of them are and some aren't, many of them are working in the castle repairing some recent damage, a complete silent attack and we don't even know who from?"

"What?" Hanon said in shock. "Show me the damage, now!"

"Yes Hanon-sama," Meru saluted. She then grabbed Hanon's arm and began dragging her to the site of the attack.

"Nagisa, come on," she called to him.

"Coming!" He called back, swimming as fast as he could to keep up with her.

"Did you say Nagisa?" Meru asked as she turned her head to see a familiar face.

Her eyes went wide at what she saw swimming behind them.

"Nagisa, you..." She tried to make words form but nothing would come to her.

Nagisa sighed. "Meru, now's not the time to talk about all of this, we'll talk later okay?"

"O-okay," she replied quietly, still in shock. She then turned to Hanon and whispered "since when is he?"

"Like he said, we'll talk later," Hanon replied plainly.

After another 5 minutes of turning down countless hallways, they reached the sight. The outer wall of the castle and the library had been smashed to pieces, rubble everywhere and books lying over and under them, pages floating about no matter if they were full or torn to shreds.

Hanon couldn't bare to look at the sight inside. Her precious castle had come under a random attack, and just when she thought the seas were all at peace again. Tears welled up in her eyes. _*Why? Why couldn't I have been here when I was needed most?*_

Nagisa could see the pain in her eyes and pulled her in for a hug, which she gratefully took in.

Nagisa then turned her head towards him. "Don't cry. A Princess has to stay strong for her people doesn't she?"

She wiped her eyes of tears and put on a brave face. "Right, thanks Nagisa."

He smiled as he let go of her.

Hanon then looked around to see if 'he' would be here, and he was.

"Aruka!" Hanon called.

The man she called to turned around and smiled at the site he saw, "Hanon-sama!"

Hanon swam up to him asking, "what happened here?"

"We're not entirely sure what happened Hanon-sama, all we could find was this old necklace, but it's so old and rusty that we can't make out what it is. If we could, we would know who the attack came from, we're sure it's a clan mark hidden on this necklace. And it's good timing that you came down here, you could help us with the cleansing process, the boy too," Aruka explained.

Aruka was one of the nine special born from the Octavious Clan, who took role as the Kingdom's army general and war detective. He had olive tone skin, hair a shade slightly lighter than Hanon's that was completely flat and ran to above his shoulders. His head adorned a pair of what looked like binoculars for his detective side. His tail was a mix of dark blue and very light aqua, seamlessly blending as it ran down his tail his ends fins though were more floaty like the girls and instead of pearl beads, he had 2 rings of rock that glowed light blue circling that area instead.

He handed the necklace over to Hanon and she and Nagisa took a good look at it.

"It's true, we really can't make out the symbol," Nagisa stated.

"And you are?" Aruka enquired.

"Sorry, my name's Shirai Nagisa, nice to meet you," he replied bowing to the man in front of him.

Aruka gave Nagisa a good look over, circling him, viewing every aspect that he could.

_*There's no doubt about it, he really does look the like the reincarnation of our last leader, Nagura,*_ Aruka thought to himself.

"Is, something wrong?" Nagisa questioned with the way that Aruka was looking at him.

Aruka's face then lightened up, "it's okay, nothing to worry about."

"Oh good!" Nagisa sighed as he sweat dropped.

"Hanon, I'm pretty sure the real reason you came back wasn't for a friendly visit for a week or because you knew about the damage?" Aruka asked.

"My my, you are too good at playing detective and reading me aren't you? We're here for the Binding Gemstone, the Shining Moonstone," she replied.

"What business do you have with the Shining Moonstone, you don't just go asking for it right out of the blue? So, who's getting married?"

Nagisa whistled. "This guy sure is good a figuring out stuff isn't he?"

"So, out with it, who's getting married?" He pleaded.

Hanon looked to Nagisa who nodded as if to say, lets tell him.

"The North Pacific Pink Pearl Mermaid Princess Nanami Luchia and the Prince of the Panthalassa Clan Domouto Kaito," Hanon confirmed.

Aruka's faces dropped a little. "Luchia's getting married now?"

Nagisa stepped in. "Considering the two have been going out for the past 4 or so years and have a great relationship, not only linked by the seas but by fate, I think it's safe to say the faster we act on this, the better for the good of them and for Luchia's Kingdom."

Aruka gave it a thought after hearing it all. "Fair play to her then, now, the Shining Moonstone? Are we getting it or what?"

Hanon then nodded to him as he and the couple swam down the hallways back to the throne room.

Once they were at the throne, Aruka pulled down his goggles and scanned for the right spot.

To actually get to the Shining Moonstone, there was a small hole, not seen by the human eye. Aruka's goggles are used to locate that hole as they give off a tiny mark of radiation which the goggles pick up. A mermaid's pearl in then placed in that hole and reveals the location of the stone.

After a while, a beep noise could be heard.

"Found it!" Aruka said. "Hanon, you're pearl."

"Right," Hanon replied as she took her pearl out of her necklace and handed it over to Aruka.

Aruka then placed it over the spot he'd found, the pearl shining with a blue aura as the chair slid backward, a tunnel appearing in its place.

"You keep the stone down there?" Nagisa asked.

"Since it's such a rare stone, we thought the best place to keep it would be a place that only me and my Army General, Aruka that is, could get to," she explained.

"Well, I've think I've done my part, I'm going to get Meru to help with the cleansing, meet me in the dark room once you've got the stone," Aruka said before heading back to the destruction zone.

Hanon then grabbed Nagisa's hand and pulled him down the hole with her.

After about a minute of swimming South, the tunnel opened up into a spherical shaped room with a box lying in the centre of it.

"Is that?" Nagisa asked.

"The Shining Moonstone, used to bond the eternal souls of our people through the night."

"What about the day?"

"That's Rina's job. Her Kingdom holds the Eternal Sun's Silk, used to bond the souls through the day."

Grabbing the box, she and Nagisa headed back above the throne. When they were out of there, the throne automatically slid back over and Hanon's pearl was returned to her. The two then left for the Dark Room

* * *

**- Meanwhile, at the North Atlantic Palace -**

Unlike Hanon's Kingdom, the outlying lands of Rina's Kingdom were filled with rich vitamins for growing different types of seaweed. Once grown, they were then taken to the Palaces weavers and turned into various silks or other materials. They took pride in fashion and fancy living, most of the lifestyles in her Kingdom being the posh life, very social too.

Similar things were going on here too.

Masahiro and Rina entered the throne room to see a depressed mermaid sitting at a table, her head on the table whilst her arms were being used as pillows.

"Panna? Is everything alright?" Rina asked from the doorway.

The mermaid instantly brightened up and swam straight for Rina, hugging her.

Panna was one of the seven mermaid sisters along with Meru and Yukairi. She had medium length sea green/blue hair that fell to halfway down her back, eyes that were a very dark green shade, quite close to black. Her shell bra was the same colour as Rina's but her tail was a little darker than that. "Rina-sama, thank Aqua Regina you're back!"

"What's happened here? I've barely seen anyone on the way in," Rina stated.

"Well, something bad came up whilst you were gone. We had a silent enemy attack and they've completely shattered the sacred Library and part of the silk treasury," Panna explained in a sad tone.

"What?!" Rina shouted furiously, her voice tinged with a sad tone too. "Show me."

"Yes, Rina-sama," Panna replied saluting before, like her sister, grabbing Rina and dragging her down the corridors, Masahiro contently swimming behind them.

After a quick swim through what seemed like countless halls again, they finally reached the scene of the blast.

Just like Hanon's Kingdom, the sacred library was in tatters, shelves either destroyed or tattered, books all over the place. The only thing that was worse, was that the blast had reached the silk treasury too, pieces of precious silk scattered around the destruction.

Rina's eyes could only well up with tears at the site of her castle._ *How could I have let this happen?*_ She though to herself.

Masahiro noticed the tears and drew Rina into a hug with him to try and calm her down.

Rina looked up to see his face. "Don't cry Rina. After all, you once told me a Princess must stay strong her people."

Rina smiled, wiping the tears away from her face and letting go of her hold.

She too, looked around to see if 'he' would be here too.

"Ah, Akura," she called.

The man she called to turned around, pleased to see who he saw.

"Rina-sama!" The man replied happily as he swam to meet her.

"What on earth happened here? Was this a complete silent attack?" Rina asked.

"It must have been a silent attack, we were all working last night when the attack occurred and we've all been awake ever since trying to find out what happened. We found an old necklace, but due to the rust we can't make it out. Though, by the looks of it, we're pretty sure a clan mark is hidden on this necklace. And it seems you've come at a good time as well, I'm sure you wouldn't mind helping us out with the cleaning process, the guy next to you too," Akura explained.

If you've guessed it by the name, Akura is Aruka's brother. They're mother had 2 affairs with humans in the Octavious and Verenasus clans and so the special were born, Akura being born into the Verenasus clan of course. He, much like his brother, was also the Kingdom's army general and war detective. He had olive tone skin, hair that was a shade slightly lighter than Rina's and ran with many spikes pointing upwards yet hair still falling flat to just below his shoulders. His detective binoculars lay around his neck as they were too hard to keep on his head. His tail was a mix of grass green and a deep green that seamlessly blended together as they ran down his tail. His end fins were also floaty but the same 2 rings of rock circled his tail and glowed light green.

He then handed Rina the necklace for her to examine.

"It does look like something a clan member would have," Rina began.

"But, it's impossible to make it out in it's current state, the rust has truly blinded it," Masahiro finished.

"And who might you be?" Akura asked.

"Ah, sorry for not introducing myself earlier, my name is Hamaski Masahiro, nice to meet you," he replied bowing.

"Hamasaki Masahiro?!" Panna asked in shock. "But, you..."

"Panna," Rina said looking at her with a stern face, "we'll talk about the matter later, it's not important for now."

"Ri-right," she replied, and for the rest of the time, she just studied Masahiro.

Akura then took the chance to study him too, circling him from many angles.

_*There's no mistaking it, the resemblance is uncanny, he really does look like our last leader, Masamoko,* _Akura thought to himself.

"Is- is something wrong?" Masahiro asked worried.

Akura's face lightened and reassured Masahiro, "don't worry about it, it's nothing."

"That's good," Masahiro replied sighing, afraid something was wrong for a minute.

"All of this aside, Rina," Akura said turning to her, "I'm pretty sure the reason you came here wasn't for a friendly visit or because you knew about the damage."

Rina just smiled, "I'd expect nothing less from our war detective, always so good at reading people."

"Of course, so care to tell me your business here then?"

"We came for the Eternal Sun's Silk," she stated.

Akura just whistled. "Now, we don't just go asking for such a precious item right out of the blue like that do we? Who's the lucky couple then?"

Rina turned to Masahiro who just nodded his head.

"It's the The North Pacific Pink Pearl Mermaid Princess Nanami Luchia and the Prince of the Panthalassa Clan Domouto Kaito."

Much like his brother's response, Akura's face dropped a little. "She's, getting married?"

Masahiro then had his word. "Considering the two were bound by fate as children and have been in love for nearly 4 years, I think it's safe to say that the faster the marriage is done, the better it will be for Luchia's Kingdom."

Akura sighed, "it's a good thing you Princesses are all such good friends, it would normally be a bigger issue otherwise." He then raised his hands in defeat, "alright, lets go get the silk then."

Akura then lead them back to the throne room where he continued to proceed with the same process his brother did.

He pulled up his goggles and scanned for the right spot.

To actually get to the Eternal Sun's Silk, there was a small hole, not seen by the human eye. Akura's goggles are used to locate that hole as they give off a tiny mark of radiation which the goggles pick up. A mermaid's pearl in then placed in that hole and reveals the location of the stone.

After a while, a beep noise could be heard.

"Found you," he said happily. Holding out his hand he asked, "Rina-sama, your pearl please?"

"Of course," Rina replied as she took her pearl out of her necklace and handed it over to Akura.

Aruka then placed it over the spot he'd found, the pearl shining with a green aura as the chair slid backward, a tunnel appearing in its place.

"Care to explain the tunnel?" Masahiro asked.

"Since the Eternal Sun's Silk is such a rare item, both me and Hanon set up a system with our Army General's, Akura and his brother Aruka, so that only me and him could gain access to it," Rina explained.

Akura then began to swim away, saying, "I'm off to the cleaning room with Panna, come see us as soon as you are done."

Rina then grabbed Masahiro's hand and pulled him down the tunnel with her.

After about a minute of swimming South, the tunnel opened up into a spherical shaped room with a circular box lying in the centre of it.

"I'm guessing it's in there then?" Masahiro questioned.

"Yes, the Eternal Sun's Silk is used to bind the souls of lovers throughout the day, bringing happiness under it's light."

"What about night if this is for the day?"

"That's what Hanon went after, she holds the Shining Moonstone, used to bind through the night."

After grabbing the box, the two swam back up through the tunnel and watched the throne slide back into it's place, Rina's pearl returning to her. They then both headed off to the Dark Room for the cleansing.

* * *

**- Meanwhile, back in Luchia's bedroom -**

Luchia and Kaito had made it back without anyone noticing them except for one certain person.

*knock knock*

"Who is it?" Luchia asked.

"It's Gaito. Kaito, you and me need to talk," Gaito said a little loudly through the door.

Luchia quickly shot Kaito a worried glance. Noticing it, he quickly said, "I'll be fine."

He got up off the bed and opened the door only for Gaito to grab him and pin him to the wall. "Kaito, what on earth where you thinking?"

"What do you mean?" Kaito asked confused.

"Don't think I didn't see you swim up to the surface the morning that Yamu left, what where you doing up there?"

"I was only getting Luchia a ring from Yamu's father."

"A ring?"

"Yes, a ring! I wanted our marriage to be special so I asked Yamu's father to forge a ring for me."

Gaito released him after some though and gave his brother a little bonk on the head. "Just pray no-one saw you or recognised you. Your human form would look different due to the recent change. Even so, I didn't realise my little brother had a brain that did something clever."

"What's that suppose to mean?" Kaito asked rather angrily.

"Well it did kinda take you forever to realise that Luchia was your mermaid and after one case of memory loss which was all your fault, you actually do something thoughtful. Take this as a compliment by the way."

"Right," Kaito said in disbelief, his face dropping slightly. "Is there anything else you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Oh yeah, that's right, Luchia!" Gaito called.

"What is it?" She asked popping her head around the corner of the door.

"Something happened, at Rina and Hanon's castles," he said distantly.

Luchia then put on her serious face. "What happened then?"

"Both of them have suffered silent attacks on parts of their castles," he hung his head at the end and closed his eyes.

Luchia gasped, "if it's happened to them, what's to say it couldn't happen to us?"

"That's what I thought," Gaito replied. "So, I'v devised a plan. Recent information says that the attacks were all on the sacred libraries so we should get them back here and surprise the enemy when they attack."

Kaito smiled, "it actually sounds like a good plan."

Gaito just smirked at him, "of course it's a good idea. Come on, we need to write messages to them." Gaito then began swimming off down the hall, Luchia and Kaito not far behind in tow.

* * *

**- Mean while, in the dark room of the South Atlantic - **

Aruka, Nagisa, Meru and Hanon were getting ready to perform a cleansing ritual.

The rusty necklace lay on a table in front of them in the darkness, the only light in the entire room was the light that Meru was producing. She was standing at the front ready to perform a cleansing spell on the necklace. To do this though, she needed some help from Hanon. Hanon therefore had to transmit some of her pearls power to Meru. It's usually a very draining spell so Nagisa and Aruka were stood to the sides, putting a hand on either shoulder and transmitting some of their energy into her. Aruka from his clan member mark and Nagisa from his shell on his wrist.

Meru's hands lit up with a ball of white light that she soaked the necklace in, the light glowing slightly blue from the power of Hanon's pearl.

During the sequence, Aruka could have swarn he saw the faint markings of his clans logo appearing on Nagisa's forehead, usually indicating the clan member was very powerful. _*This is only more proof that he's possibly the reincarnation of Nagura, better record this.* _He then pulled his goggles down slightly and set them on a little record feature.

After another 10 minutes, Meru was starting to get tired, they were getting nowhere with this necklace thing at all.

Meru eventually had to give up, the light from Hanon's pearl disappearing as well as the clan marks on Nagisa and Aruka.

Meru sighed, "I'm sorry guys, this necklace just has way too much rust! We'd need 3 of us to do it."

A spark of genius then hit her. "Hey, maybe we should set out to Luchia's castle! Knowing Panna, she won't be able to do it either and think of heading there. We're sisters after all."

Everyone in the room seemed to agree with the idea and began heading out of the castle, on a trip back to Luchia's castle.

* * *

**- Mean while, in the dark room of the North Atlantic -**

Akura, Masahiro, Panna and Rina were getting ready to perform a cleansing ritual.

The rusty necklace lay on a table in front of them in the darkness, the only light in the entire room was the light that Panna was producing. She was standing at the front ready to perform a cleansing spell on the necklace. To do this though, she needed some help from Rina. Rina therefore had to transmit some of her pearls power to Panna. It's usually a very draining spell so Masahiro and Akura were stood to the sides, putting a hand on either shoulder and transmitting some of their energy into her. Akura from his clan member mark and Masahiro from his shell on his wrist.

Panna's hands lit up with a ball of white light that she soaked the necklace in, the light glowing slightly green from the power of Rina's pearl.

During the sequence, Akura could have swarn he saw the faint markings of his clans logo appearing on Masahiro's forehead, usually indicating the clan member was very powerful. _*My my, this is interesting, the mark showing up on his forehead is only more proof that he might be the reincarnation of Masamoko, it's too greater a coincidence right now.* _He then pulled his goggles up and set them on a little record feature.

After another 10 minutes, Panna was starting to get tired, they too were getting nowhere with this necklace thing at all.

Just like at Hanon's, Panna eventually had to give up, the light from Rina's pearl disappearing as well as the clan marks on Masahiro and Akura.

Panna sighed, "I'm so sorry everyone, this necklace just has way too much rust on it. We'd need at least 3 of us to do the job."

A spark of genius then hit her. "Hey, maybe we should set out to Luchia's castle! Knowing Meru, the same thing will have happened and she'll be thinking of heading there as well. We are sisters after all."

Everyone in the room seemed to agree with the idea and began heading out of the castle, on a trip back to Luchia's castle.

* * *

**- Back at Luchia's castle, the next day -**

Luchia and all her guards including Shami, her Army General were standing by at the sacred library. Kaito had also shown Gaito how to obtain his Panthalassa form and so he and Kaito stood there, staff and newly obtained sword at the ready. Kaito's form had changed though, his hair and eyes had stayed the same and his headband stayed too. Around his neck though was a red scarf that was slightly ripped in places, it was the only thing covering his chest. His lower half was taken up by a pair of long black trousers held up by a belt with the Panthalassa symbol. He was also bare footed.

The same had happened to Gaito except he kept his staff and his scarf wasn't red, it was a silver colour, same as the highlights in his hair. He'd gotten used to it by now but he did miss his long coat. He didn't mind it.

They'd been waiting for over half an hour now.

"Hey, I thought the enemy would have shown up by now," Kaito said with boredom, putting one hand on his hip and resting his sword behind his head.

"There's nothing we can do about it," Gaito retaliated. "The timings were not precise, they said they were between the hours of 12 and 2, nothing we can do about it."

"I wonder where the others are anyway," Kaito pondered, turning his head to scan the area.

For all we know, Aqua Regina probably heard him as Kaito heard a faint voice in the distance coming down the hallway.

He instantly held his sword ready for battle in case it was an enemy.

Down the hallway, they could see 2 familiar shadows approaching them.

"Kaito!" one voice called.

Nagisa and Masahiro then came out of the darkness.

"What are you all doing here, we've been looking all over the castle for you?" Nagisa asked. "And since when could you do 'this'?"

"For one, I didn't realise I could do 'this' until a few hours ago. And... didn't you guys get our message?"

"What message?" Masahiro asked confused.

Kaito blink in response. "We sent you both messages telling you to come here about 4 hours ago, yet you've ended up here anyway."

"If it was 4 hours ago, we wouldn't have got them. Turns out all of us were on our way back here because of some issues. We'll explain later but right now we need your help in the dark room." Masahiro quickly explained.

"Oh, and what do you need to use the dark room for?" Luchia asked crossing her arms.

"Luchia, there isn't any time for this right now!" an annoyed voice called out.

Meru and Panna were next to come into the light, Meru being the one who called out.

"Meru, Panna, you guys are here too?" Luchia asked.

"Yeah, we need to do a special ritual and we need Yukairi for it so we all came here." Panna explained.

Kaito sighed and turned his head, walking away slightly, "this just gets more and more confusing the more they talk.

"Nagisa!" "Masahiro!" Hanon and Rina both respectively called as they swam into the room as well.

"Rina." "Hanon." The boys replied back.

Aruka and Aruka followed up behind them, Shami tensing up as they came into the room.

Turning his head towards them, he said, "long time no see fellow Army Generals."

"Shami, it's been to long my friend," Akura replied giving him a quick manly hug.

"So, our little Shami got promoted to Army General just like us," Aruka said, giving him a little harmless punch on the arm.

"Yeah, it's been about a year or so."

"Listen," Kaito said rather loudly stopping all of the little conversations people were having. "This is really nice and all, everyone being here but um, there's an enemy supposedly coming to attack us soon."

No sooner after he said his, a sinister voice could be heard laughing. "You should listen to the boy, he knows the situation pretty well."

Turning to the doorway, Hayate was standing there, arms crossed and an evil grin covering his face.

"Who is this guy?" Gaito asked, taking a defensive stance with his staff.

"Be careful!" Aruka called, standing in front of everyone else along with Shami and Akura. "There's an evil aura coming from him."

Kaito looked carefully over the man before noticing a similar necklace to the one that was on Shaga's neck, a Serebu Clan Mark.

"Another person from the Serebu Clan?" Kaito asked himself.

Hayate just managed to hear him, smirking. "Give the boy a prize, he knows what clan I'm from too."

"It's not hard, you're wearing a clan necklace," Kaito huffed.

"Come now boy, you should know more than this, after all, you did run into my son not all too long ago," Hayate said, smiling at the end.

Kaito's brain quickly caught on to what he was saying. "You mean you're... Serebu, Hayate?"

"Well done."

Before anyone could make a move, Hayate used some of his magic to create a wall of orange light that split up everyone. He cast it around the three Army General's and looped it past the three princesses, but catching Kaito, Masahiro and Nagisa, then in front of the three sisters and finally past all the guards. When he pulled his hand back, the line of the magic became straight across the back line cast and pulled the generals and boys back behind that line with it.

"What the heck is this?" Kaito asked himself touching it, only to receive a shock that blew him back a bit.

"Oh yeah," Hayate said slowly. "It's a wall of magic designed to keep you back. If you try and break it or even touch it, it will shock you and render your movement. And I wouldn't try a large attack, the shock will just be more painful and the rendered time will be longer."

_*Looks like the plan worked. I got what I finally wanted,*_ Hayate thought to himself.

"Why are you doing this?" Rina asked angrily.

"Simple, to get an audience with you three together and alone. I knew that by attacking two out of three kingdoms, you would naturally come swimming over here, especially when I created those necklaces that were too hard to cleanse alone and you realised you would need 3 of you plus extra power to cleanse them properly. Worked like a charm. Even though I couldn't get you three completely alone, the wall of magic should do the trick to keep them from interfering with us." Hayate explained.

Hanon and Rina's faces drained a little. "You mean you... attacked our castles as bait?" Hanon asked in shock.

"It may have been a pain to do so but a little attack like that was the perfect bait though, I got what I wanted, didn't I?" Hayate pointed out.

Luchia then balled her fists in anger, before shouting, "you are going to pay for this! And regret what you did!"

"Pink Pearl Voice!"

"Aquamarine Pearl Voice!"

"Green Pearl Voice!"

All three girls transformed to their final outfits and began to sing Love Goes On.

After the first chorus, they still carried on singing, planning to do the whole song. Kaito though had noticed something strange.

"Hayate, he hasn't been affected yet at all."

When the girls finished their song, they looked at Hayate to see that he hadn't even shifted position or changed facial features at all.

Luchia must have felt all the blood drain from her face when she saw this. "No way, the song had no effect at all!"

"Sorry girls, times have changed and you'll need more than songs to damage me now," Hayate said briefly before pulling out a sword from behind his back. "You will need much more than music!"

Kaito could see where this was going to end if he didn't do something. "Don't you dare."

"Don't you dare, what?" Hayate asked smirking.

"Don't you dare, even think about hurting Luchia!" Kaito shouted, his headband breaking as a massive wave of light engulfed the room, destroying the light barrier and getting to Hayate a little.

_*What strength! I knew that if he interfered something like this would happen,_* Hayate thought.

He quickly pulled his sword out and in a circular motion with it, created a dark portal to escape from the place.

When the light cleared, Hayate had gone.

"He's gone," Rina stated.

"Don't take this as a victory, mermaid princesses. You know your songs are useless against me and that magic wall was only a little show of my powers. I'll come back for you soon enough so don't get too comfy over this hollow victory." Hayate's voice rang out over the library, evil laughter fading with it.

Luchia then dropped to her knees as she was still in her song form. "Our songs, they don't work any more, completely ineffectual," she said sadly.

* * *

**Nexus: Once again, I thought I was never going to finish this chapter. I promise I will give a shout out to everyone who has reviewed, faved and followed over the last chapter and this chapter in the next chapter. I'm too flippin' tired to do it now. It's 5:17am and I don't feel like checking through a list I keep to see what's new.**

**Kaito: She basically means thanks to everyone who has reviewed, faved and followed since the last chapter. We'll say thanks next time.**

**Everyone else: So look forward to next time!**

**Nexus: Might be a little while though... Z z z *fell asleep***


	13. Chapter 13: The new Leaders

**Nexus: Pah! And you all probably thought I was dead or something! No, I'm very much alive, or as I put it, hanging on by a tiny thread as my energy is drained by having to do so much college work and many late nights resulting in minimal sleep...**

**Luchia: Think about it though, 2 more weeks of work and you'll be free then for the whole summer to update this story!**

**Judai, Satoshi, Sora and Luka: Don't forget about us to...**

**Everyone else: GET OUT!**

***they leave***

**Nagisa: Nexus is sorry for not being able to update sooner... in return for this, here's a massive thank you list to everyone who ever reviewed us, faved this story and followed it. Then we'll answer questions in reviews from the 'Guests' who we cannot reply to.**

**Nexus: No, Guest answers first, head captain's orders!**

**Akimaya Clare- I don't really know when I will finish this. The first part will take a while but I'm planning on 7 parts plus 5 other stories. And there are parts in between that don't follow the main story line so could be AGES!**

**Annie- Yeah, not much went into chapter 6, is was very late. But I'm glad you want more :)**

**Princess Noel- Give me the names of these 'cruel homework-assigning' teachers and let me handle them for you. That way you'd be free to read this once I update it more. And thanks for reviewing my Pokemon Fanfic as well, really appreciated that :)**

**Whatever- Yes, I feuked up, it's natural! I'll go back and fix it when I run a fix check during the summer.**

**Tori- I'ma so happy that you think it's nearly what the shows subtitles are. I try to imagine the fanfic as if it were the true season 3 and onward, watching it in my head and get a feel for some ideas of what lines to write. I don't know if a job in writing is what I'll go for. To be honest, FF is just a hobby currently, more into art but writing keeps those born under the year of the Rat in check. :)**

**Nexus: Oh Ra no! Now I have to thank every person! T_T Be patient, chapter 13 is down here somewhere...**

**-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-**

**First off, my biggest thanks goes to mermaid princess lilian for letting me borrow the first 6 chapters, fixing them up and turning it into what it is now. And also for 4 very kind reviews :3**

**Mirajane S and Erza S- such a pleasure to always talk to you, you've given me plenty of constant reviews which is great and you've faved and followed, we love you! :3**

**Snow-Loftwing - you gave us great reviews at the start and kept our spirits up when we first started here on FF, thanks babes! :3**

**magic135- for a review and a fave :)**

**KJC71790- gave us a review, a follow and a fave :)**

**That one guy called 'Guest'- numerous reviews under this guest name so thank you :)**

**Mikay-Sakura-Yumi - for a review**

**SkywardKkalox- you reviewed this more than once and you're a follower and gave this a fave, thanks! :3**

**KUKAIxAMU- for one review**

**AIM021 - for one review**

**meapzilla2mouse - you reviewed 3 times so far and gave us a fave and a follow, thank you so much love :3**

**Akiyama Claire- you reviewed us**

**Annie- two very nice reviews :)**

**Princess Noel- as mentioned before, you reviewed this and my Pokemon fic so thank you so much love, I like you... :3**

**Whatever- for that one review even though I knew I cocked up :)**

**tori- you gave me 2 kind reviews love :)**

**DragonStorm the phoenix- reviewed, can keep a secret, fave and followed, love you! :3**

**AquaBluey- fave and follower :)**

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**subinie - fave**

**Nexus: *huff huff* *cough* I thinks that's everyone now! SO HERE'S CHAPTER 13! We can do the claiming stuff at the end...**

* * *

**Chapter 13: The new Leaders **

**- Last Time -**

**"Don't take this as a victory, mermaid princesses. You know your songs are useless against me and that magic wall was only a little show of my powers. I'll come back for you soon enough so don't get too comfy over this hollow victory." Hayate's voice rang out over the library, evil laughter fading with it.**

**Luchia then dropped to her knees as she was still in her song form. "Our songs, they don't work any more, completely ineffectual," she said sadly.**

"Are you okay?" Kaito asked running over to her and helping her up as she transformed back to normal.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Luchia replied unconvincingly

"But if our songs won't work against an enemy like him," Hanon began, "then how are we supposed to beat him?"

Shami, Aruka and Akura sighed and muttered to each other under their breaths.

"I knew this day would come eventually," Shami whispered.

"They couldn't keep using songs forever, too many kinks," Aruka pointed out.

"Looks like we're just going to have to tell them," Akura replied.

"Everyone," the three of them called, becoming the centre of attention.

"As 3 of the 7 major Army Generals, we all knew that the princesses wouldn't be able to keep on singing forever," Shami began.

"Their songs can be overcome by more powerful opponents and new songs weren't going to cut it for much longer," Akura added.

"So, they're just going to have to learn a new way to fight opponents," Aruka finished, taking out his sword and pointing it towards the girl. "You're actually going to have to learn how to fight, by sword and magic."

All the blood must have drained from most people's faces when they heard these words.

"Just because our songs don't work any more we're going to have to ditch it all and learn how to fight properly?!" Rina shouted in disbelief.

"Don't worry," Aruka replied, "you'll have help. We've got a good plan in mind, we just need to check something very important." He then turned to both Nagisa and Masahiro.

"What does it have to do with us?" Nagisa asked confused.

"You two were once human yes?" Shami asked crossing his arms.

"Yeah, fully born and bred humans," Masahiro replied.

"See, we don't think that's entirely true," Aruka stated.

"When the last two leaders of the Octavious and Verenasus clans died, they left part of their souls in two newly born human children. And we think it's you two," Akura followed on.

"When me and my brother both saw you, the first thing we saw was that you two uncannily looked like our to previous leaders, there were a few details that were off, age and markings."

"The last thing that leads us to believe that you two are the ones with their re-incarnated souls are your names. You are Nagisa and Masahiro. The names of our leaders, were Nagura from the Octavious Clan and Masamoko from the Verenasus." Akura explained.

"Nagura?" Nagisa asked himself.

"Masamoko?" Masahiro asked himself.

"Where do I recognise that name?" Nagisa asked.

"I've heard it before, but where from?" Nagisa asked.

"It could be their souls calling to you from inside your body. If you two are truly the re-incarnated souls of those leaders, then you should be able to help us, and maybe even return to your true selves. It's been pure fate that you two have ended up down here back in your previous forms," Shami explained.

"That's 'if' we really are their re-incarnated selves," Nagisa pointed out, starting to believe that maybe the Army Generals were right, maybe they really were more than they thought they were.

"So? Back to the matter at hand?" Kaito asked, also returning back to normal. "You said you had a plan?"

Shami swam forward. "There's this, place, under Luchia's Castle. Down there are the rune stone emblems of the forgotten fighting forms. When merpeople had enough of war, the head clan members from Kaito's Clan, and my friend Clans, sealed them down there as a sign of resolve once peace had been brought about. We then developed singing as a way of peace and this was not long after the current Princesses were born. Only those three Head Clan Members could ever unlock it again. Gaito is still alive but Kaito is the re-incarnation of their last leader and his real father, who just happened to have the same name. And if Masahiro and Nagisa really are Nagura and Masamoko's re-incarnated Souls, we'll know by going there. That's the plan."

Everyone took a second before agreeing that it was a good plan.

"Wait? You said this place was under my palace but I've never heard of such a thing or seen a way," Luchia clocked on.

"We might have something to do with that," Meru spoke up.

"When the three heads sealed them away, they asked us, our last re-incarnated selves, to seal the entrance using our light magic," Panna explained.

"So we're the ones who can open it. Pretty lame entrance though, it's under the Royal Fountain," Yukairi added.

"And how do you propose we get under it, it's pretty darn heavy to move, heck, it might not even be movable," Aruka said annoyed.

"We'll think about it overnight," Kaito replied yawning. "Besides, I think it's time we all get some shut eye."

Everyone else agreed to this and headed off to their separate rooms.

Meru and Panna went to sleep in their quarters next to their sisters. Shami, Aruka and Akura on the other hand all went back to the Panthalassa Clan's real home and slept there for the night, the other 2 welcomed like brothers.

* * *

**- In Nagisa's sleep -**

Nagisa was having a strange dream that night, he was somewhere in the middle of the Ocean, screaming for anyone or something.

_*Nagisa, Nagisa,* _a voice could be heard.

"What? Who's there?" Nagisa answered back hopefully.

Before he had time to even think he would receive a response from the voice that had been calling to him, he felt a pain in his left eye. He tried not to scream and wince at the pain, as it felt like someone had gotten a laser and was carving a symbol directly onto his eye. Even though he couldn't see it, it was the mark of the Octavious Clan, burning bright white. The symbol looked like someone had taken a cross and given it 4 wild floating arms either side, each ending in a sharp looking point and each overlapping one another, the top of the cross was also longer and ran right around to the inside of his eye socket.

Once the pain wore off, he heard the voice say one last thing.

_*Search for me, find my grave and revive me.*_

After this he jolted up, not screaming or anything as he felt like he was in a trance. He didn't speak, his only focus right now was what the voice had told him. To find Nagura's grave and revive him. He silently slid out of bed and made an escape through the window in the room. Luchia's room didn't have a window in it for a good measure, so she never ran off.

He noticed that his vision had changed, everything had become a much brighter blue shade and he could see a small white dot in the distance. Following his instincts, he followed the dot right the way to the surface.

* * *

**- In Masahiro's sleep -**

Masahiro too was having a very similar dream, that he was also somewhere in the middle of the Ocean all alone.

_*Masahiro, Masahiro,*_ a strange voice called.

"Who the? Is there someone there?" He called back in response.

Again, before there was any time to even think he would hear the voice reply, he too, felt a pain in his right eye. He tried to fight against the pain but it only made it worse so he laid back and just let the pain run, even though he winced at it, closing his other eye. It felt like someone had also grabbed a laser and was inscribing a mark directly onto the eye, the mark of the Verenasus Clan nonetheless, also burning bright white. The Verenasus Clan Symbol was much like two long handled Rapier swords crossing over each other. In the centre where they overlapped, was what looked like an atom symbol, small circular lines all rotated at different angles crossing.

Once the pain wore off, he finally got his response from the voice.

_*I've had enough of my grave, find me and resurrect me.*_

Much like Nagisa, he jolted up in a trance and did the first thing he could think of, follow the voiced words and head straight out to look for Masamoko's grave and bring him back from the dead. He silently slid out of bed and also escaped through the nearby window, catching the attention of someone next door to him.

His vision too had changed, everything had become a light green shade and he too, could see a small white dot off in the distance. Following it, he made his break for the surface.

* * *

**- In the room next door -**

It wasn't Luchia or Kaito who had heard Masahiro, it was Gaito.

"What in the name of the Gods is going on next door? Sounded like somebody left through a window," he spoke to himself. He looked outside his own window to see Nagisa and Masahiro swimming very close to each other, but seeming like neither had noticed the other ones presence as they swam.

"Now why would they be heading to the surface at this time of night?" He asked himself, jumping out of his bed and leaving through the window to catch up to them and get his answer.

When he finally caught up to them, he called their names. "Nagisa, Masahiro."

Both of them seemed to ignore him and carried on swimming.

Now Gaito was mad. "Come on what is with you two!?" He asked grabbing them by the arms, only for the two of them to grip back really harshly.

They both turned around and stared at Gaito intensely. When they spoke, their voice were distorted. "Don't interrupt us! Just go back, and don't tell the others about us leaving. We'll be back, once 'we' are back."

They then let go of their harsh grip and swam even faster towards their destination.

Gaito just silently swam back. _*Those marks on their eyes. Could it be something to do with Nagura and Masamoko?__*_

When Nagisa and Masahiro reached the surface, they both headed straight for the nearby cliff and sat on it for a few seconds. They were then both returned to human form but not to normal clothing. Both of them instead were now wearing hooded cloaks, dark trousers and nothing on their feet. They looked around for the source of the white dots and made their run up the cliff.

They hadn't even noticed their destination was the same cliff where Kaito's human parents lied, the cliff overlooking the Ocean.

When they reached the top of the cliff, they followed the white dots to two different graves and stood there in silence for a few minutes, feeling a pain beating in their chests.

They couldn't see him, but sitting on the edge of the cliff was Daisuke. He was still concerned about Kaito and was more than a little shocked when he thought he saw Masahiro and Nagisa in the water. But due to the cliffs hanging nature, he couldn't see them when they transformed.

After a few more seconds, his suspicion was confirmed when he turned around and saw that the two figures standing there took their cloak hoods down and stared at the graves in front of them, only their eye with the burned mark crying.

"I thought you two had left for Luchia's home town, what are you doing up here?" Daisuke asked confused, also annoyed when they didn't respond but just knelt down to read the graves.

"What's with you two? Appearing in cloaks, coming from the Ocean, what the hell happened since you left?!" He asked, again, getting no response.

Before he had another shot at getting mad at then, two beams of white light shot up from the graves, engulfing Nagisa and Masahiro with them. Daisuke had to shield his eyes. "What on earth?"

Inside the first pillar of light, Nagisa was floating around, until he saw a shadowy figure of a human body. The closer he got to it, the more it came to life. The figure looked like an older version of himself, but wearing similar clothes to what Kaito had on earlier, except the scarf was blue. He also held out a long cutlass like sword with the mark of the Octavious clan carved on the base of it.

"Nagisa," the figure called happily.

"Are you, Nagura?" Nagisa asked in shock.

"Yep, good to see you found your way here, sorry for the pain the eye mark caused you, it was the only way to get you to my grave," Nagura explained briefly before extending his hand to him. "So, whatdya say we get me out of this grave?"

Nagisa held back for a minute before smiling and shaking his hand firmly. "Yeah, let's do it."

Nagura then absorbed himself into Nagisa's body, some more pysichal changed happening. He grew taller in height and aged a couple of years. A necklace bearing the symbol of his clan hung around his neck on a thin silver beaded chain. His clothing had changed to what Nagura was wearing but the sword had returned to it's sheath attacked to this trousers.

Similar things were happening on Masahiro's side of the pillar of light.

He too was floating around, also coming closer and closer to a figure. When he got closer, the figure looked like an older version of himself, bearing similar clothing again but with a green scarf, appearing to be longer in length. His sword was a long thin rapier sword with the symbol of the Verenasus clan carved into it.

"Well well, Masahiro," the figure called happily.

"Masamoko, is that you?" Masahiro asked.

"Good to see you found your way to my grave, I appollogize for the pain the eye mark may have caused, it was the only way I could get you to come and find my grave," Masamoko explained before he too extended his hand down. "I've had enough of being here, care to set me free?"

Masahiro smiled and instantly shook it. "Of course I will."

Masamoko absorbed himself into Masahiro's body, a couple of changed occurring. He gained a necklace bearing the symbol of the Verenasus Clan, which hung around his neck on a short but thick silver chain. His clothing changed into what Masahiro was wearing and the sword returned to it's sheath.

When both of Pillars of light faded, both Masahiro and Nagisa looked at the graves, realising the names had been erased.

_*Sorry guys,*_ both Nagura and Masamoko called in their owners heads. _*We just need to take control of you for a minute.*_

Once they'd done so, they both turned to each other and looked confused.

"Nagura?"

"Masamoko?"

Masamoko smiled before pulling Nagura into a boy hug with him. "I thought I'd never see you again after the war with the Serebu Clan."

"Same here," Nagura replied, then broke out of the hug to look over himself. "Seem like I've grown up a little after returning to a body."

"Yeah, you look a little taller if of anything," Masamoko noticed, putting his hand where he last remembered Nagura's height.

Both of them then turned to look at the shocked and confused Daisuke.

"Hey," they both called casually, raising their hand to him.

"What the hell did you two just do with Nagisa and Masahiro? They were here a minute ago? And just who the hell are you two!?" Daisuke fired off rapidly.

"I think we should give them their bodies back now," Nagura thought.

"Good plan," Masamoko agreed, letting the boys regain control of their bodies. When this happened though, their clothes changed again. Nagisa was back to wearing a white top and blue jacket, shorts and a pair of blue converse. Masahiro was back to wearing a biker jacket, brown jeans and a pair of biker boots.

"Hey, looks like we really are their re-incarnated forms after all," Nagisa noticed.

"Yeah, we might just be able to carry out the plan after all," Masahiro added.

"Um, guys," Daisuke said quietly, getting their attention.

"Daisuke!?" Both boys asked shocked. One minute ago they were both asleep as far as they were concerned and the next minute, they were on a cliff with their re-incarnated souls returned to themselves with Daisuke just having witnessed nearly all the events.

"Okay, I thought you two had gone back with Luchia and that lot to her home town, so what are you doing back here?" Daisuke asked.

Neither boy could give a response to that question, so Daisuke fired off some more to them.

"First off, I see you two come out of the Ocean and swim off somewhere. Next thing I know, you're up here on this cliff in hooded cloaks, staring at a grave. After that, pillars of light surrounded you, and when you came back, you'd changed. Two people called Nagura and Masamoko had appeared in stead. Then they said they would give you your bodies back and then you returned to normal. But, those necklaces weren't there before and you Nagisa, were not this tall or old. What the hell happened you two, I want answers! I thought something was weird when I thought I saw Kaito dive into the Ocean one day, as of course, he'd left with you two. But then, you two appear out of the Ocean as well and all this happens. Tell me right now, what's going on?"

Nagisa and Masahiro quickly looked at each other, realising they couldn't answer any of Daisuke's questions. They couldn't just tell him that Luchia's home was really at the bottom of the Ocean, or what she or anyone, including themselves were. They couldn't even tell him about their re-incarnated forms returning to themselves.

"Listen Daisuke," Masahiro began, his voice seeming to have deepened slightly. "We wish we could tell you what's going on. Honestly, we really wish we could tell you where we came from and why we ended up here-"

"-So why not tell me then?" Daisuke asked confused.

"Because, we just can't," Nagisa added, his voice seeming to have done the same thing. "If we told you, we'd be putting our lives and others at risk. Maybe one day we'll be able to tell you, but we've got to go," Nagisa explained, then making a break for the cliff and diving over the edge back into the Ocean.

Daisuke was dead shocked by this action and looked hopefully at Masahiro. "Please, just tell me something."

Masahiro sighed, knowing he was making a bad decision. No-one would ever talk about where they'd left to, Shaga wouldn't dare say anything about it. He walked over to the cliff edge and turned back to Daisuke.

"You wanna know something? We'll be back in one year, once our confinement to the Ocean is over," he said briefly before turning around and diving in to catch up with Nagisa.

Daisuke was even more confused. "Confinement to the Ocean? Back in one year? What the hell does that mean?" He asked himself scratching his head. He thought best not to ponder on the issue and just forget everything that he saw. But something in his brain was bugging him, like all the times he'd noticed Luchia head for the Ocean and the time he caught her briefly descending on the day of her 13th birthday, when the shack burnt down.

"It couldn't be could it? No, there's no way they could be... mermaids?"

He was silent for a minute before laughing.

"Haha, oh, you are funny Daisuke, there's no such thing," he told himself as he walked back home, trying to forget the events of the night. If anyone asked anything, he would just say he didn't know. He'd probably forget about it all with exams coming soon, no time to focus on his old friends.

* * *

"Man, that was way too close!" Nagisa shouted once he and Masahiro were back on course to Luchia's Palace.

"Who'd of thought that someone we knew would be there when we got our souls back," he added grabbing his necklace to get a good look at it, "and become fully fledged clan members, leaders nonetheless."

"I know, let alone the fact that I've changed completely. It's like I've skipped forward 3 years of growing up, and your voice deepened too."

"Don't forget the fact that we're like Kaito now, we can fight like he can, perform magic, who know's what else might have changed now."

"Besides what we know of and our tails," Nagisa added looking back at his. It was rather much like Kaito's now, the ends faded down into black and looked much more spikier than before. Around his waist was also a black line with the Octavious Clan's symbol in the centre. Same with Masahiro except for having the Verenasus Clan's symbol of course. Their eyes had also returned to normal, that painful mark faded away.

They knew that Masamoko and Nagura had become part of them, gaining knowledge that they never knew before about the Ocean's, including how to get back to Luchia's Palace from where they were. And also, a clue on how to open the gate to the Rune Stones they'd once sealed away. Since Kaito was born with his Soul being Clan Leader from birth, his knowledge was still rather limited, especially since he lived as a human for 99% of it so far.

They made their way back to Luchia's Palace and snuck in through the windows and climbed back into bed, neither of the girls waking up as they did so, luckily.

* * *

**- The next morning -**

When Nagisa woke up, the first thing he noticed was the Clan necklace dangling on a silver chain around his neck, which jogged his memories from last night into the morning. "So, it really wasn't a dream then." He actually smiled happily once he realised this thought and laid there, waiting for Hanon to wake up.

Nagisa noticed her let out a yawn and open her eyes slowly.

"Good morning Princess."

Hanon turned her head and as tired as she was, her eyes still managed to open wide in shock.

"Nagisa, what happened to you?" She asked noticing the physical changes. "And your voice too."

"It's, kind of a long story.

He then went on to briefly explain what happened last night with finding Nagura's grave. He added in the fact that Masahiro was with him and found Masamoko but left out the run in with Daisuke, he didn't need her worrying about that.

Hanon then launched into a massive hug with him. "I think I like the new older Nagisa, means I'm finally dating a guy a year older than me."

He then turned her head towards his, smiled, and brought her in for a long kiss.

**- Meanwhile, 2 doors down -**

Rina was the first to wake up in her room, her eyes falling straight away on the new necklace adorning her boyfriend's neck.

Just at that moment, he opened his eyes to see her staring intensely at him. "Morning Rina."

"Yeah, morning," she replied back rather flatly, still confused by the necklace.

"Would it make you feel any better if I told you me and Nagisa found our re-incarnated souls last night and absorbed them into ourselves?"

A massive grin grew on her face as he pulled him in for a kiss. Once she finally let go, she smiled sweetly at him. "I'm glad we can get onto working on this new plan of ours then.

* * *

The rest of the morning went by pretty fast. Breakfast was fine as usual, with the addition of everyone else having to be told the story of last night, Daisuke still being left out for good reasons. Everyone seemed really happy with the new change, especially Hanon, she loved the new slightly older Nagisa.

Once Kaito had gotten into contact with Shami and his friends and told him the news, they came straight over and all 12 met up at the Royal Fountain. Gaito would have gone with them, but Nikora had managed to drag him into finding items for the soon to be wedding.

"So," Shami began, "you guys got any idea on who to get under the fountain?"

"Easy," Masahiro spoke up, quickly circling it to check he was right about what Masamoko had told him. "There are three strange marks on the fountain, red, blue and green marks. The marks are where the Clan Leader's swords dig into and the fountain slides away, leaving the bare floor where the real entrance is hidden."

Masahiro and Nagisa then turned into their Clan forms and stabbed their newly acquired swords into the designated slots.

Kaito then did the same, everyone watching in awe as the fountain seamlessly slid backwards for them.

Panna, Yukairi and Meru knew what to do from her. All three of them floating above the ground, holding hands in a circular like pattern. A beam of light shot up from inside the pattern they had made and opened up the floor beneath them a little more, to what looked like a tunnel.

"So down there?" Luchia began to ask.

"Are the Rune Stone Fighting forms," Nagisa interrupted. "Come on." He then shot down the tunnel, everyone following in pursuit.

The room was much like the ones where the Shining Moonstone and Sun's Silk had been found, the tunnel lead to a rather large opened circular room, with three statues in the middle.

The Statues themselves looked a lot like Luchia, Hanon and Rina, spare a few differences in facial features and hair. The statues appeared to be wearing what was the girls normal singing clothes, but with metal armour plates placed in as well as weapons. (A/N: I'll explain in the next chapter how they look down to a T!)

Everyone gasped in awe at the statues that were before them. Luchia and co got a little bit too curious about the statues and went to touch them and give them a look over.

When they did though, the statues and themselves faded, leaving a small black floating orb in each place where a statue once was.

"I guess we wait then," Kaito said sounding bored and actually sat down on the floor, waiting once again for things to magically happen like they always do.

* * *

**Nexus: WOW! I never thought I would finish this chapter. It's a little shorter than I expected it to be but the content of what happened should make up for it, I hope... I thanked you all.**

**Luchia: Oh yeah, Nexus doesn't own any of us!**

**Hanon: But she does own the story from Chapter 6 and onwards and characters like Shami, Aruka, Akura, Panna and Yukairi :)**

**Everyone: See you all whenever we next see you!**

**Nexus: Give it 2 weeks or so... (sorry)**


	14. Chapter 14: Sashumaruu's Soul

**Nexus: Well, people prayed for the next chapter and said they wanted it updated soon so I made a promise I would update yesterday, and I FAILED! My lack of sleep (tiredness) and Laptop overheating twice let me down! Sorry... xxx**

**On another note, thank you to my 3 new reviewers JuAnimeZ, StarLilly Rose and guest KatieKitten. Thank you guys! And bigger thanks to JuAnimeZ for faving this story and StarLilly Rose for following it, thanks you two :3 xxx**

**And to answer your question KatieKitten, there will be 1 new character this chapter but it will be a little while before another new character gets introduced as there are quite a few of them so far. **

**Well now, chapter 14, the indication of a new set of Claimers and Disclaimers**

***everyone gulps**

**Gaito: Maybe you could just do 1 set per chapter. I mean, there are quite a lot of us now...**

**Nexus: FINE! *spin spin spin spin spin* And the winners are, you and Kaito! Feel free to argue who does which**

**Kaito: Nexus doesn't own any characters from Mermaid Melody or the Franchise (but wishes she did!)**

**Gaito: But she does own this story and any OC character involved and lots of other things in the story**

**Nexus: So, without further ado, here is the anticipated chapter 14 loves**

* * *

Chapter 14: Sashumaruu's Soul

**- Last time -**

**Everyone gasped in awe at the statues that were before them. Luchia and co got a little bit too curious about the statues and went to touch them and give them a look over.**

**When they did though, the statues and themselves faded, leaving a small black floating orb in each place where a statue once was.**

**"I guess we wait then," Kaito said sounding bored and actually sat down on the floor, waiting once again for things to magically happen like they always do.**

Inside those three black orbs, it lead to where Luchia, Hanon and Rina were currently situated, standing in a rainbow coloured world, transformed into their simple singing outfits, the first ones.

One by one their outfits lit up and changes were made to them.

With Luchia's outfit, metal spikes were added into her hair scrunchies and it also looked like her hair was thicker than before. The frills on the straps of her dress had a smaller layer of metal plating on them. The bodice of her dress had a metal lining on it with smaller spikes sticking upward. The rest of the upper half of her dress was the same via the buttons which were now a metallic pink shade. The frills before the skirt of her dress also gained metal plating and the skirt itself, the same, a layer of thicker metal plating on it. On her gloves, the band of pearls had been replaced with thicker metallic bands with a couple of spikes pointing off of them and the frills accenting them also gained metal plating as well. Down her legs, she'd acquired a pair of metallic silver stockings. And for her shoes, the linings had gained metallic linings and the frills on those, you guessed it, also gained metal plating. The soles of her shoes had also gained a metal lining. As for weapons, Luchia now had a sword sheath attached to the left side of her dress which contained a thick sword with a pink rose handle, her pearl laying in the centre of the rose, and had a vine like pattern going down it. Although it may have looked small, when it was held, it grew to it's full size, which was about over half as tall as she was herself. As for magic, Luchia had control over Fire. (If fire can be summoned in Kingdom Hearts underwater, then it can here too!)

With Hanon's outfit, the stars in her hair had gained a smaller metal star in the centre of them, the rest of her hair still the same as ever. The bodice of her dress also had a metal lining on it but also had a set of blue metallic balls lining the top of that. Down the centre of the upper half of her dress was a thin silver plate. The three sets of layers of the skirt of her dress had obtained metal platings as well that came to about halfway down each layer and each of them had a slight dark blue tint to them. As for her gloves, they'd gone. In their place was a mechanical round device with a silver base and a rainbow coloured orb, of which the one of the left had her pearl, and from the sides of them, 7 silver daggers, much like Kunai, floated around the sides. From the back of this device, a pair of silver plated armlets appeared. Down her legs were a pair of metallic silver stockings. Her shoes too had gained metallic lining and silver plating on the frills. The base of her shoes had a metal lining too but they also had a little bit of a heel on them as well. As for weapons, Hanon's weapons were the 7 silver daggers floating around the devices on her wrists. They could be fired at will towards the enemy, restocking themselves but if they were grabbed by hand, they grew slightly bigger and could be used in 1 on 1 combat. As for magic, that's what the magical device was for. If a shot from it was fired from an ally, it would create a temporary shield to defend them for a couple of hits but it took a little time to recharge.

As for Rina's outfit, the bodice of her dress had gained a thick metal plating and so had the neck of her dress. The lower half of her dress had been ripped in three places so all 4 strips of ripped material had also gained metal platings as well. As for her gloves, the band of pears had been replaced with thick metallic bands and the frills had gained sets of metal plating too. Down the sides of her gloves, long jutted metal platings had been added as well. As for her shoes, metal plating had been put on the straps and a much thicker metal lining for the soles were added as well. The heel had also grown by about 1 inch and had a metal plating all around it. For weaponry, Rina had 2 sword sheaths attacked to the sides of her dress that contained 2 Rapiers. The handles on them were shaped like atoms, just like the one on the Verenasus Clan's symbol. And although they may have looked small, when they were grabbed, they grew in size to full length which was just over half of Rina's height.

When all these changes had taken place, the world around them faded and they found themselves back in the room with everyone else, reverted back to mermaid form.

"So, what happened exactly?" Kaito asked standing up. Before any of the girls could answer, Shami spoke up.

"The fighting forms are accessed in the same way as the singing forms and that form is still accessible if they wish for it to be. So, they just have to transform like normal. Care to give it a try for us?"

"Sure," they all replied, transforming into their new forms.

Everyone was amazed at their new forms, even the girls were still excited.

"Woah, is that metal platings on them?" Yukairi asked, swimming over to touch some of them.

"I guess it's for protection," Rina added. "But what do we do now? What do these forms even do?"

"We can help there," Nagisa called. "Don't forget, we're our clan member's selves now, we have all their knowledge, and for that, there's a guy we can see."

"Who?" Luchia asked excited.

"A guy called Sashumaaru, he's from my Clan and he's a top trainer, you can use our clan's training grounds, might be funny going back to the Clan's house and seeing Nagura alive again," Nagisa explained.

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" Kaito asked, returning to normal at long last. "Let's go!"

And with that said, all three girls returned to normal as well, and all headed out for the Octavious Clan's home, following Nagisa and Masahiro since they knew where it was.

When they exited the room, the floor sealed over and the royal fountain slid back into place, like nothing had ever happened.

They also briefly stopped to explain to Nikora and Gaito where they were going. When Nikora wasn't looking though, Gaito snuck off and joined the gang. Seeing these girls fight is something he wanted to see.

* * *

**- Back on the surface -**

"Morning class," the teacher called entering the room.

"Morning Miss," everyone replied.

_*Here we go again, just another boring day in school. I wonder how Luchia and Kaito are doing right now?*_ Shaga's mind wondered.

"Well, I'm off on a business meeting in half an hour so for today, you'll have a substitute teacher," she explained. "Please, come in," she motioned towards the door.

When the substitute walked in, all the blood from Shaga's face just disappeared. _*What the hell is he doing here!?*_

The man who walked in had long silver hair and was wearing rather nice clothes for a teacher. He had a brown jacket on with a purple tie and a grey buttoned top, brown trousers, dark shoes and also a pair of classes.

"Well, good morning class, my name is-" the teacher began to say.

"-Hayate," Shaga spoke up, finishing the sentence for him, gaining attention from all of the class.

"You know this guy Shaga?" One student asked.

Shaga blushed for a second, realising all eyes were on him before lying. "Not really, I've just heard of him is all."

"Well, I'm not considered famous, um," Hayate staggered, purposely forgetting Shaga's name before looking at the register, "Ameru Shaga?"

"Just Shaga sir," Shaga confirmed.

"Of course, Shaga. Now class, last names and calling people sir are a bit of a waste, so just feel free to call me Hayate and lets forget the formalities, shall we?"

Everyone seemed to agree with this and the day went by rather quickly for most people. For Shaga, it was hell! The man he'd only just gotten away from to return to a normal life had found him and was acting as his substitute for the day. For a man of the seas, he didn't make a half bad teacher, even Shaga had to admit it.

The end of the day came and Shaga and his friend were two of the last to pack away.

"Oh Shaga, I think you and me need to talk for a minute," Hayate asked.

"Sure," Shaga growled.

"Don't be too long alright?" His friend asked before leaving the room and heading outside to wait for him.

"So, what on earth brings you up here dad?" Shaga asked rather rudely.

"Hey, calm down kid, I only came here for a talk," Hayate said nicely walking over to him and putting a hand on his shoulder, "a nice father to son talk."

Before Shaga could respond though, Hayate gave him a quick blow to the stomach, knocking the wind right out of, him, causing him to pass out. "But, we'll continue our talk back home." He picked Shaga up and snuck out of the building, using another exit so that his friend wouldn't realise he was even gone.

Walking to the Ocean though, Hayate didn't realise he'd got a follower. Daisuke had saw him and was rather worried about seeing his substitute teacher carrying Shaga who looked unconscious towards the Ocean.

_*Just how many more weird things are going to happen!?*_ Daisuke thought whilst silently following them.

When they reached the Ocean and he saw Hayate just walked under, Daisuke had had it! He knew he should had just dived off the cliff last night and try to follow Nagisa and Masahiro. So he took the moment, and took a deep breath and went under. He was quite a good breath holder, it would be 3 minutes before he would have to surface.

He managed to follow Hayate for a good minute before Hayate noticed something wasn't right.

"What's this? A follower?" Hayate asked turning around, shocking Daisuke to high heavens, who lost some of his air. "Right, a human no less. Can't just have you go back safely now you've seen this."

_*I don't know what's going on but this seems really bad!*_ Daisuke thought as he clung on for air.

Hayate too a lung at Daisuke and managed to punch him in the stomach, like he did to Shaga. Naturally, Daisuke lost all his air and sunk down to the deep sea bed.

"Now that that's taken care of, time to get you back home again," Hayate said to himself, carrying on his swim back to his home.

* * *

**- Now at the entrance to the Octavious Clan's home -**

"I forgot how impressive this place was," Masahiro remarked.

The Octavious Clan's home was nothing shy of the size of a mansion, the walls of it covered with precious metals and ores, glinting brightly even this far down in the Ocean.

Nagisa knocked on the door, a scanner appearing since this was always the case with their Clan's entrance. Though, this one was a little different, it just required the scanning of the Clan's necklace, followed by an password screen.

He scanned his necklace, the password screen appearing. He entered it and the wide double doors slowly opened themselves, gaining an audience from everyone inside.

"Hey guys, guess who's back?" Nagisa called out, as Nagura had taken control briefly.

Everyone in the room whipped their heads straight to the man they thought was dead. "No way, is that, Nagura?" A woman asked.

"By Aqua Regina herself, he's alive! A man shouted with joy, the word spreading through the rest of the Clan house pretty quickly. In a mere matter of minutes, everyone had gathered in the foyer with Nagisa, Masahiro, Kaito, Luchia, Hanon and Rina in the middle, explaining their long story to everyone so they understood what was going on.

"There's just one last thing I need to clear up, where's Sashumaaru?" Nagisa asked.

"Since you've been gone for a while, you should know he was killed. But, he was like you two, being one of the nine, his soul was passed on to a human, who still most likely has the soul inside of him," a man spoke up.

"Right, now that's a big issue and a half," Kaito said, "we can't go ashore, we're confined to the seas for a year, we don't have the ability to just go out and search for something like this. It would take too long." He sighed. "Well, we just need to come up with a new plan of action then!"

"Yeah, we all need to go back to Luchia's and re-group again for ideas. We'd stay here but with a wedding being planned, we can't. Tamura, hold the fort strong as usual mate," Nagisa ordered.

"Of course sir," he replied. (**AN: ****He'll be introduced properly later :P**)

* * *

**- Back on the way to Luchia's Palace -**

"Typical, of course in the time I was gone Sashumaruu died!" Nagisa told himself in grief.

"It's not too big of a deal," Hanon said, trying to comfort him. "We can just learn for ourselves what these new forms do."

"She right," Rina added.

They were only about 30 minutes away from Luchia's Palace and something had caught Nagisa's eye.

"Hey guys," he called out, halting everyone. "Do you see that?" He pointed into the distance at some faint object. "What is that?"

"Go find out if you're so intrigued. We'll see you back at the Palace," Rina said tiredly. She'd had just about enough swimming around and new stuff for one day.

"I'll go with you," Hanon said, taking his hand.

The rest of the gang, went back to the Palace whilst Hanon and Nagisa went to investigate what they'd seen.

The closer they got, the more obvious it became what they'd seen was. It took on the form of what appeared to be a human. After speeding up, Hanon and Nagisa were both shocked to see what they saw.

"Daisuke!" They shouted in worry seeing him here.

"How on earth did he end up here!?" Nagisa shouted franticly.

"I don't know, but it looks like he's been down here a while," Hanon replied, checking his body.

In a quick twist of events, Daisuke's eyes shot open, shining with a white iris. He turned his head to Nagisa and spoke.

"Na-" His voice was rather broken and faded off at the end and the world felt like it was repeated twice.

"Na-Nagura, it's-me... Sa-Sashumaruu." Then his eyes closed and he went back to his fainted form.

Hanon's eyes shot wide open realising something. "I don't believe it! Out of all the possible people for Sashumaruu's soul to return to, it returned to Daisuke and we never knew."

"It obviously just took a little bit of time for the call of the Ocean to get to him and awaken the soul slightly. We ought to take him back to the Palace," Nagisa explained, scooping him up in his arms and went swimming at blinding speed back to the palace.

"Ugh! Just how many more people we know are going to end up being our allies or someone from this world," Hanon said tiredly.

After a long 40 minute swim back to the Palace, Nagisa burst open the doors and jumped into Clan Mode, just so he could run fast to Luchia's recovery room. There was always at least 1 room in the castle that was treated like a mini-hospital room.

"Nagisa?" Kaito called trying to get his attention. He noticed as he went by that Nagisa was carrying what appeared to be a human. But something was bothering him, he knew the pair of shoes on the human anywhere, they were Daisuke's as they had his name written on them in Gold in Japanese.

The recovery room was a little more special as well, it was a room without water, a magical barrier over the door made it so no water could get through. When Nagisa walked in, Daisuke became much more heavy and he returned to wearing his normal clothes consisting of a blue jacket, stripy blue and white top, dark grey shorts and a pair of trainers.

Kaito had followed them in, intrigued by the room when he saw Nagisa return to normal and Daisuke drop in his arms, he went through into the doorway as well and returned to human form as well, wearing a white top, a thin red jacket, black jeans and a pair of dark converse.

"So, it really is him huh?" Kaito asked in shock.

"Yeah, but something weird, when we found him, his eyes lit up, he turned to me and called me Nagura, said he was Sashumaruu," Nagisa explained.

"So all this time, Sashumaruu's Soul was inside Daisuke and we never noticed anything before we left!?" Kaito checked.

"Yeah, we have no idea how he ended up down here, but one things for sure, he didn't just jump, look," Nagisa pointed to a red mark on his chest, a fist shaped one.

"Someone knocked the wind out of him and he drowned, but who?" Kaito asked.

"Well, we'll probably never know. The only thing we can do is wait for him to wake up and to explain to him where the hell he is, and boy will he have a lot of questions," Nagisa replied worriedly.

"Why?"

"Well, you know last night, we went up on that cliff to get our souls back?"

"Yeah."

"We... we weren't alone. Daisuke was there and saw everything, including us diving into the water and never surfacing," Nagisa confessed.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THIS!?" Kaito shouted annoyed.

"Because! Because me and Masahiro were afraid to tell you," he admitted.

Kaito just signed and took a seat by the edge of the bed that Daisuke now lay upon. "It doesn't matter now, we just need to wait for him to wake up. You realise we're going to have to explain everything?"

"Yes," Nagisa said flatly. He really wished right now that he would have just, left him there, or, taken him to the shore, or something! But not this, this was the last thing he needed to deal with. But on the other hand, Sashumaruu's Soul was now within grasp, and if unlocked, training could begin and they wouldn't have to explain anything to Daisuke

* * *

**- A few hours later -**

Daisuke was slowly waking up.

"Hey man-"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Daisuke shouted. "Wait, I'm alive!? The last thing I remember was- was..." he began to say until he realised who was in the room with him.

"Kaito? Nagisa?"

"Hey Daisuke, good to see you again," Nagisa replied trying not to sound worried.

"Where am I? I thought I was drowning, I was punched by our substitute teacher after I followed him taking Shaga into the Ocean and-"

"Serebu Hayate!?" Kaito and Nagisa said together. There was only one person who wanted Shaga back, his father, Serebu Hayate.

"Well, we weren't told his last name so- WAIT! You know him too? And for one where the hell am I?" Daisuke asked franticly.

"Um, you could call Hayate our enemy. He tried to take back Shaga again after loosing him and-" Nagisa began to say until Daisuke interrupted him.

"Want him back? Why would he do that? And you still haven't said where the hell I am," Daisuke countered.

Kaito sighed. "Okay, we're gonna tell you where you are, but you've got to not freak out okay?"

"Okay," Daisuke replied really unsure of the answer.

"You- you're underwater."

* * *

**Nexus: And... chapter over! Sorry it took so long to get it out but there was a lot on my plate recently in something called the real world. Also, sorry for this chapter being short but it's building up suspense for the next chapter as a lot will happen so also bear with me as I write it over time.**

**Once again, thanks to the new follower and faver and the usual reviewers.**

**Don't forget to review this one too! Next chapter will be out something this new week.**

**Everyone: Look forward to it!**

**Nexus: And review please!**


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